Another Witchmaker
by Sinnatious
Summary: AngelaHawkDuran. Angela has a huge crush on Duran, but he's too thick to notice, so she tries to make him jealous by flirting with Hawk. Uh oh, this could backfire. Ch55 All's well that, well, ends.
1. Castle City Jad

Disclaimer: I do not own Seiken Densetsu 3 (Or Secret of Mana 2, should you prefer, or heck, even Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu 2 or ANY game...) or any of the characters, events or places in it. Thus, should you attempt to sue me, you would be wasting both of our times. Have a nice day.  
  
WARNING: Rated PG-13, for this and that varying from chapter to chapter, should a chapter have something extra questionable in it I'll put it in that individual chapter's warning. Over all though, this fic is rated for occasional violence and blood, adult situations, and language. Jeez, all that makes it sound so depressing and dark and horrible, when this is overall a romantic comedy! -which then again might not even wind up being funny. (I never believed that I would EVER try to write a romantic comedy. Then again, I also swore that I would never watch Card Captor Sakura or Sailor Moon. Darn, my entire life is screwed up!)  
  
Author's note: One day I was walking along and for no apparent reason decided that there simply weren't enough Angela/Hawk SD3 fics out there! So there's a warning for fans straight away - even though this does seem to be a Angela/Duran fic for the most part, it's not how it's going to end up, so don't review me begging me to make it so, because I'm personally biased against Duran. Thus, Duran-lovers might not like this. Also, please don't flame, it's wastes everyone's time involved and constructive criticism is a better medium for your complaints. Also, this isn't exactly a recount of the events of the game, though it does follow them more-or-less, I'll be chopping and changing lots of bits to suit my own story, just so you know and don't try and point out all these tiny mistakes to me that I already know about and may have even done on purpose. Okay? Oooookay. Now that all the buearacracy is out of the way, I hope you enjoy this fic, I sincerely do.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 1 - Castle City Jad  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Storming off the boat, Princess Angela of Altena wasn't really paying attention to much of anything as, even after a good couple-of-days-long boat journey, most of which was spent throwing up overboard, she had plenty of anger to work with and things to dwell over.  
  
How could her mother do this to her? She knew she couldn't use magic, but that wasn't any reason to kill her, was it? ... It was all that jerk, Koren's fault! Ever since the red wizard had reached the upper ranks her mother, the Queen of Altena, had been acting even more distant that normal. Well, she'd show them, she'd go to the Holy Priest at the city of Wendel like those nice, if simple, people suggested and learn to use magic! Then when she got her hands on that filthy Koren..  
  
The violet-haired princess of Altena almost shrieked when her mental tirade wound her up nearly running directly into a beastman at least twice her height. A beastman? What was a beastman doing in Jad of all places?  
  
The beastman in question turned his dominating gaze upon the young girl, and suddenly she felt naked. Metaphorically, of course, it was kind of hard to feel naked when one was used to prancing around in little more than a red thong that could be described as a dress.  
  
"What do you want? Do you want to challenge me?"  
  
"Ah.." the Princess looked around frantically for a way out of her situation. She somehow didn't think her wooden staff would hold up against a beastman's claws. She was always willing to try, though.  
  
"Of course she doesn't, she's just drawn to your manly posturing, am I right?" a third voice smoothly interrupted their 'conversation'.  
  
The beastman looked around in confusement when a young man seemingly appeared out of an alleyway that she could have sworn was empty a moment ago.  
  
Angela, taking this offered opportunity out of the situation, immediately struck one of her classic flirting poses, showing as much cleavage and leg as possible, winking at the offending beastman. "That's riiiiiight! I was wondering if maybe you wanted to join me for a drink, big boy!"  
  
It was an odd thing, to see a beastman blush; in fact, the Princess wasn't even sure it was possible until then. "Uh, I'm on guard duty. Don't cause any trouble, and we won't hurt you." He hurried on his way.  
  
"Hn, fine, your loss," the princess poked her tongue out at his back, then indignantly looked in the other direction, choosing this moment to appraise her 'saviour'. Well, not really saviour, but he was quick thinking and had given her a stylish way out of what could have been an ugly situation. To her surprise, though, he was gone, though how he could have vanished from the street so quickly was puzzling. Maybe she'd just imagined him, though she wasn't usually in the practice of imagining mysterious men coming out of nowhere to help her; at least, not in her conscious waking hours. Shrugging, she continued on through the town, careful now not to run into any more of the patrolling beastman. It was looking as if Jad had been invaded - kind of like how Altena was planning to invade Forcena. It must be a fad throughout various kingdoms at the moment.  
  
She spied a weapons shop and eyed her cane critically. It might have been good quality once, but it was getting old, especially after the abuse she gave it in the Altenan snowfields. It was more of royal sceptre than a weapon, after all. It simply hadn't been designed to thwack rabites mercilessly, and had thus seen better days, not to mention that stupid tassel at the end was kind of annoying.... She didn't have a lot of money, but maybe if she traded some of her jewellery along with this cane.. decision made, she strode purposefully towards the shop.  
  
No sooner had she entered than she was confronted by the sight of the most amazingly hunky man she had seen in her LIFE. As a Princess, various Princes came by occasionally to court her, and there was Victor her friend, and old man Jose her teacher, and Koren, that damn red wizard, but they were all paled in comparison to the sheer majesty of this man. He glowed with importance and self-righteousness; of course, that was helped by the fact that he wore armour and a sword, indicating he was a Knight.. of Forcena.  
  
Minor detail. Forcena would only suspect Altena at this stage, and even if there was more to it, there was no way anyone here would recognise her as the Princess. Question was, what was a Knight of Forcena doing in a city occupied by Beastmen forces? As far as she knew, this was in the Holy City Wendel territory, none of Forcena's business, and the Moonlight Forest Kingdom had never had any quarrel with Forcena before..  
  
Head beginning to ache from the retrieval of so many political lessons, she reverted her attention back to fine specimen of a human being in front of her. She had to talk to him! Yet somehow the normally flirtatious and cunning Princess was at a complete loss for words. There was a first time for everything, and this guy was a whole bucket of firsts without even opening his mouth.  
  
He was ranting at the shopkeeper, but when he heard the door close behind him, turned around. 'Oh My God', she thought, horrified, 'I just fell in love with the back of someone's head!' It was such a typically kiddy thing to do. She was sixteen going on seventeen, she should have been beyond such silly crush-type feelings. 'Should' being the key word in that sentence.  
  
Now looking at his face, it was finely featured, with a strong chin and piercing blue eyes, all framed a shock of flowing, shiny orangish hair. She was so busy staring like a lovesick idiot she almost didn't notice he was speaking. "If you're looking to buy weapons, then this is a waste of time! This guy isn't selling any!"  
  
Looking at the shopkeeper for confirmation, the hapless man just shrugged at her. "The Beastmen confiscated all of the weapons! All they left was some armour!"  
  
Well, even though she had a pretty good right hook punch, she wasn't going to trade in her only weapon for new clothes. She returned her attention to the handsome knight, who was resuming his glaring at the shopkeeper. "Who ever heard of a weapons shop without weapons, huh?"  
  
"Um, excuse me, what's your name?" the Princess ventured, not really caring about the weapons one way or another. She didn't know why he wanted to get more weapons so badly, his sword looked to be in decent enough shape, even if the blade was a little stained. Probably from slaughtering rabites - monsters had become rampant across the countryside lately, and those particular little scoundrels were just about everywhere. Should humanity ever wipe itself out the next civilisation would have been created by rabites for sure.  
  
"Oh, my name? Duran, knight of King Richard, of Forcena," he said, none too proudly. She even thought he stuck out his chest a little as he said. As an afterthought, he asked, "What's yours?"  
  
'Not too bright, but what a hunk!' Angela got to liking this guy more every second. Now how to get him in the sack.. so what if she was a woman of somewhat loose morals? Her own mother had just recently tried to kill her, complete lack of morals ran in the family!  
  
She suddenly remembered that he had asked her a question. "Angela." No need to add anymore information than that, just in case relations between Atlena and Forcena had degraded farther than she anticipated.  
  
"Oh, nice to meet you Angela." He turned to walk out of the door.  
  
"Wait!" she called after him desperately. She'd just met this guy, he couldn't disappear yet! She ran after him, even going so far as to latch on to his arm. Usually most guys either blushed or tried to shake her off, but this Duran did neither. How intriguing.  
  
"What do you want?" he asked in that rich baritone. God, she was so in love it was making HERSELF sick.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"To the Holy City Wendel, of course. I need the High Priest's advice on how to defeat the Scarlet Wizard!"  
  
Angela's face almost paled when she heard the name. "Koren's already been to Forcena?"  
  
His head jerked around to look at her. "You know him?"  
  
What to do, what to do. she found herself suddenly hoping the ghost that had mysteriously saved her earlier would reappear and give her another bright idea on how to get out of this sticky predicament. No such help arrived. Oh well, her own wits would have to suffice. "Um, of course I do! I'm going to Wendel too, so that I can also learn how to beat the crap out of him!" She realised at the last minute that her response wasn't at all that lady-like, but it seemed to please the knight to no end. An enemy's enemy is always one's friend, after all.  
  
"Well, then why don't you come with me? It's safer travelling in pairs. And we can say mean and nasty things about the red wizard on the way."  
  
A dream come true! She'd hardly turned on the heavy fire-power flirting and he'd already offered! Then again, not too many men could miss her beauty. Not modest, but so true.  
  
That thought in mind, she batted her thick eyelashes at him. "That would perfect! It's so dangerous out there for a girl like me all on my own! But with your help, we'll get through no problem!" It sickened her at times to act so helpless, but she wanted to make sure this one was in the bag.  
  
He waved a hand. "Sure, sure. I heard some gossip in the inn from some guy that the best time to get out of the city is at night. I'll meet you by the gates at sunset." Now that she'd let go of his arm, he strode away, looking deep in thought.  
  
So just like that, he was gone, Angela brimming with the sort of adrenaline and joy that people get out of meeting someone completely to die for and then getting the chance to actually spend MORE time with them. After four or five minutes on Cloud Nine, the Princess promptly smacked herself for being such a ditz and made her way towards the pub. She still had an hour or so to kill before sunset, and social venues were naturally the best places to spend free time.  
  
Upon entering the establishment, Princess Angela was confronted by another interesting scene. A fierce-looking blonde wearing an odd sort of armour was brandishing a menacing-looking lance at what appeared to be a harmless. thief?  
  
It certainly was shaping up to being an interesting day. 


	2. The Flirtatious Thief, Angela Meets Her...

Disclaimer: One day... one day I will own all of Squaresoft! I will own Seiken Densetsu, and maybe one day even Nintendo! Bwa ha ha! Until then, however, I own nothing. Absolutely nothing.....  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One (unless you've already read it, in which case, I don't know why you'd want to read it again short of an obsessive compulsive disorder. But hey, who am I to discourage people from reading my warnings? Knock yourselves out!) Nothing terribly unusual to warn you about for this chapter, though just for the heck of it, I'd like to warn people about Emus. Never try and hand- feed one - unless your reflexes are faster than theirs, it could hurt. A lot.  
  
Author's note: This fic is slowly progressing to something interesting one day I hope.... but it might take a while to get there. I'd like to add that since I love my reviewers so much I'm adding another piece to this already lengthy line-up - and that's response to reviewers! Since I do have the tendency to get long-winded in these sections, if you're impatient for the chapter (that sounds like self-confidence. Dammit, my evil other half is influencing my personality again), skip on ahead and enjoy.  
  
Now - the brand-new Response to Reviewers! (Insert fanfare here)  
  
Laine: (Bows to another fan of Hawk/Angela fics). Thank you for the review! I'm so happy I'm not the only one who thinks this is a cool pairing! I actually read your fic, it was really good, maybe I should get around to reviewing it or something sometime. Though I don't share your complete hatred of Hawk and Riesz's coupleship, you needn't worry, it'll hardly be in here I think. I have seen Slayers (great series), and come to think of it, Duran and Gourry must be related SOMEHOW because that's a bloody creepy comparison.... I wrote the phrase "What a hunk!" in there? Woo, no wonder I've been experiencing missing time. I apologise for the lapse of sanity, I should never have tried to watch an episode of the dubbed Sailor Moon without the intake of painkillers first. Glad you liked it otherwise.  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Thanks! Who's your first favourite couple? (Y'know, just out of curiosity). I'm trying to keep pretty close to characterizations but I might have to stray from time to time for the benefit of the story and also for the fact that most RPG games don't really do that much characterization, even though I'd say SD3's is about the best (in my very biased opinion). Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you keep reading.  
  
Cookie Pixie: Heh heh... thanks for the review. Those romantic tensions are going to be fun to write..... BTW, love your pen name.  
  
Well, there's the long-winded intro out of the way, I apologise for it but at least you all know to expect it from now on. Thanks again for everyone's reviews and consideration and hope you keep reading and reviewing! _______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 2 - The Flirtatious Thief, Angela Meets Her Match!  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Angela regarded the two; the blonde female warrior and what looked like your common street thief in front of her. The girl looked angry, not just indignant but really ANGRY, and furthermore, it looked like she knew how to use that spear she was pointing at the stranger. And was willing to.  
  
The man under attack didn't seem too concerned with the situation, or at least not as concerned as she would have been had SHE been the one of the wrong end of a spear. If she hadn't still been wrapped up in the memory of Duran, she probably would have found him similarly attractive, though in a much different way. His features were a lot smoother, his skin tanned, his clothing vaguely exotic for the area, but most intriguing was his hair and eyes - long violet hair pulled back into a thin ponytail and amber-coloured eyes.  
  
"Hey, I'm so far away from Rolante don't you think it's pretty unlikely I'm involved in that take-over?"  
  
She started. That voice - it matched the one of the person who had intervened on her behalf with the beastman! And Rolante? She stared hard at the fierce fair-skinned girl, and a vague sense of familiarity struck her.  
  
"Princess Riesz?"  
  
The blonde momentarily drew her attention away from her quarry to regard the other girl in curiosity. "Princess Angela?"  
  
They resumed to stare at each other for about a minute, before Riesz smiled, though still didn't lower her lance at the man. "What has it been, nearly six years?"  
  
The thief, who Angela assumed must have been from the desert given his complexion, looked reasonably surprised. "You two KNOW each other? Am I surrounded by royal princesses? That must be every guy's dream come true."  
  
Riesz scowled, then in a move that far surpassed expectations twisted her weapon around and thwacked the thief across the abdomen with the handle. He managed to move quickly enough to avoid the brunt of the attack, but still fell back, clutching his stomach in what had to be exaggerated pain, letting out a hiss between his teeth.  
  
"Still beating up people, I see, Riesz," Angela tutted, briefly considering assisting the apparently injured man but dismissing the idea a moment later; he hadn't hung around earlier so she felt no loyalty to him now. "You beat up diplomats who call you a little girl, guys in pubs, your own warriors, and anything smaller than you."  
  
"And you're still dressed in the exact same dress you wore last time. You could have at least upgraded in size, Angela."  
  
The thief muttered from his position on the floor, "Great, a catfight."  
  
That earned him a glare from both of the girls, but he held up one hand in defence, giving a winning white smile, or at least the best he could manage. "Easy now, I'm injured! You've had your point! You can kick my ass!"  
  
The Princess of Rolante snorted in disgust. "Get up off the floor. That hit couldn't have possibly done that much damage."  
  
He smiled again - what was WITH this guy, was he eternally happy? - and with some effort, hauled himself from the floor, barely concealing a wince as he did so. "You're right, of course."  
  
Angela raised an eyebrow. He must have been a real weakling if he couldn't take a hit from just the handle of Riesz's albeit-scary lance.  
  
"Bartender, let me buy these two lovely ladies a drink!" he motioned, and a moment later a glass was offered to both Angela and Riesz. "Now, seeing as it's not every day a low-born like myself gets to entertain two royal princesses, mind telling me what's going on and why I was nearly skewered?"  
  
Riesz snatched the glass from his hand with a glare and all but spat at him. "Are you daft? It was Navarre that took over Rolante, killed my father and kidnapped my brother!"  
  
The thief suddenly looked serious, composure changed dramatically from the cheerful and clumsy character they had witnessed thus far. "You mean Isabella actually invaded Rolante? Using Ninjas?"  
  
"Of course! You'd already know all that, you thief!"  
  
He ignored her. "Was there a blue-haired girl with them?"  
  
The Amazon looked momentarily confused. "No. Why?"  
  
He turned back to his own drink on the tabletop. "No reason. So the Castle That Never Fell finally fell, huh?"  
  
"My God." Angela was shocked. Navarre invaded Rolante... and succeeded? She knew Navarre ninjas were good, but against a much larger army of Amazons? This had all sorts of dire portents. Were the rumours true?  
  
The blonde Amazon was looking more and more upset, but less of her anger was directed at the man now. "Why are you so surprised?"  
  
He shook his head ruefully. "I didn't really think they'd go through with it. Something weird is going on at the Navarre Theieves Guild. Flamekhan, our leader, would never do something like that. It's all that damn Isabella's fault!" He looked as though he wanted to slam his fist into something, but restrained himself. Angela gave him a sympathetic look. It sounded a lot like what happened in Altena.  
  
"I'm a traitor to Navarre now. Long story why," he continued, with a twisted smile. Suddenly, though, it turned cheerful again. What was with these mood swings? "I answered your questions, now mind telling me why you're here? I can't imagine that Jad is at the top of every Princess's holiday destination."  
  
Riesz seemed to have settled down enough, convinced that this stranger wasn't her enemy -the enemy of enemy was her friend thing again, Angela supposed- and likely comforted by the vaguely familiar presence of Angela, to sit down and be rational. She took a long swig of her drink before beginning. "You already know about Rolante. I managed to escape, and now I'm looking for my brother, Prince Elliot. I think the ninjas got him. I'm going to Wendel to ask the High Priest for help."  
  
Angela started in surprise. "So am I! My mother tried to kill me because I couldn't use magic, so I'm going to learn how from the High Priest at Wendel!" She paused for a moment when she finished saying that - it had come out a little too candidly for her comfort.  
  
"Damn. That's pretty harsh," the thief offered. "....Angela, wasn't it?"  
  
The Princess of Altena stuck her nose into the air. "To street trash like you it's PRINCESS."  
  
He shook his violet-haired head, grinning again. "Nuh-uh. You're in exile, too, which doesn't make you a princess. You're just another ordinary pretty girl now."  
  
Angela's face reddened with a dangerous mixture of anger and indignation. "And what might your name be, SIR?" She asked sarcastically.  
  
He cocked his head to the side, gauging the two glaring Princesses. "Hawk."  
  
"Hawk...," Riesz pressed.  
  
"Just Hawk," he shrugged.  
  
Momentarily put off, the two girls regarded the oddly charming character, choosing instead to take a generous swig of their drinks. No last name? Well, Angela surmised, if she'd nearly been the one beaten up by Princess Riesz she probably wouldn't be handing out all of her life's personal details either.  
  
"So, HAWK," she said as scathingly as she could, which was pretty good because sarcasm was one of Princess Angela's famed specialities; diplomats and court officials feared her for it; "What are YOU doing in Jad, other than hiding from your crazy violent thieves' guild?" 'Hypocrite, hypocrite' a cute little chibi-Angela shouted in her head, another chibi-Angela quickly proceeding to beat the little voice up.  
  
For someone who had been thrown into exile, Hawk still seemed incredibly cheerful. "Oh, I'm going to see the High Priest in Wendel as well. This girl I know, Jessica, has a curse put on her by that lady Isabella who has corrupted the guild. I'm hoping the priest can tell me how to remove it."  
  
"How.... noble." She wasn't sure if she could find the heart to beat up the guy now, as tempting as it was; after all, she was going to Wendel for such a selfish reason and he was doing it for no personal benefit whatsoever. Even Riesz, the righteous Amazon, wanted to get HER kingdom back, and find HER brother, both noble causes but with underlying selfish reasons. Of course, she recalled, her new role model in life was the most selfish of all, wanting to go to Wendel so that he could become more powerful.....  
  
Duran! In all the excitement, she'd almost forgotten she had to meet him! How the hell had she forgotten a man like that?! There were more important things going on than the end of the world!  
  
She hurriedly swilled the last of her free and probably cheap drink, blanching at the aftertaste, trying not to reflect on where a thief might get the money to buy girls drinks at bars. Hawk smirked at her expression, then nudged a staring into space Riesz, who had also finished her drink. The Amazon fell onto the counter, and began snoring lightly.  
  
Angela raised an eyebrow. She knew some people had trouble holding their drinks, but that was bit extreme, she'd only had ONE.....  
  
The Navarrian shrugged amiably. "I suppose she didn't indulge much back up at Rolante."  
  
"I think that kind of lack of alcohol tolerance is intolerable in any princess," Angela muttered, grabbing her cane. "I'm heading out now; if I'm going to get out of this city with all these Beastmen, I hear the best time to do it is at night."  
  
To her surprise, Hawk stood, and moved to open the door for her. "Yeah, I've spent the last couple of nights casing it myself; the beastman go into the wolfen forms at night and are too busy roaming and looking for a fight to guard the barricades properly."  
  
Angela paused. "I don't suppose you told that to a Knight of Forcena?"  
  
"I did, a nice guy, Duran I think his name was."  
  
The Princess shook her head in disbelief, long purple hair swishing with the movement. "You're already full of surprises. What are you doing?"  
  
"Going to Wendel," he replied shortly. "You are too, aren't you?"  
  
Open-mouthed, Angela actually stopped walking in shock. "Who said you could come with ME?" She shrilled.  
  
He shrugged. "I simply couldn't turn down the company of such a pretty lady. But, if you really find me too irresistible to trust yourself to keep your hands off me, you don't have to come. It's only coincidence we're travelling the same path after all." He grinned engagingly, daring her to challenge him.  
  
Angela, for the second time that night, was left speechless, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish that hadn't eaten in a week. This upstart.... no, this street TRASH..... was more brazen than even herself. He might have been infinitely more modest clothing-wise, but his attitude was.... so freakin' flirtatious! Was that level of flirting even legal? She made a mental note to banish every ladies' man wanna-be in Altena if she ever got back to that kingdom.  
  
Without any better witty reply, she just glared at his retreating back and the swinging long lavender ponytail, wrapped in a purple satin ribbon. "Well, don't you at least have a weapon, you numskull? You'll get eaten by rabites for sure!" As far as she could tell, he wasn't carrying a sword, a bow, a club, nothing! And given his lithe frame, she doubted he could survive on his fists alone.  
  
He turned back, appraising her with those almost spooky yellow eyes. How odd.... then again, neither of them exactly had common hair colour, either. "Don't you worry, Angela. I'm always armed."  
  
Was that meant to be some kind of riddle? She wasn't blind, the freak didn't even have a slingshot on his person! Scrabbling for anything to get out of having this-this- Tag-a-long! on what she was hoping was a lot of quality time with her recent acquaintance, Duran, she persisted, "But why don't you go with Riesz? She's going to Wendel too!"  
  
He turned and resumed walking, calling behind him, "I already told you! I'm getting out of Jad tonight, and Riesz is currently intoxicated! It's not my problem if you want to turn down my charming company!"  
  
Fuming, Angela was tempted to delay her escape by just a night if it meant getting away from the self-inflated jerk. Then she recalled her promise to meet Duran, and she was already late! Grinding her teeth together in frustration, she stomped as angrily and loudly as she could in her shoes - which was no easy feat given that they were mostly fabric - whilst the thief leading the way didn't make so much as a whisper of air when he moved.  
  
So they walked in that manner through the rest of Jad. There were one or two beastman patrolling as normal, but none of them spared them so much as a glance, figuring they were just likely on their way to the inn or home or wherever else. Your common beastman wasn't exactly known for his intelligence.  
  
The gates loomed, large and open, before them, just beyond that the barricades. They paused, and a long moment of silence ensued.  
  
Angela suddenly realised that Duran was nowhere in sight.  
  
Speechless, she looked around furtively, but there weren't exactly many places around to hide. She, Princess Angela of Altena, had been stood up! This was inexcusable!  
  
"Looks like someone already took all the guards out for us," Hawk whispered, appearing by her side all of a sudden. She started - she thought he had gone up ahead. She'd barely known the guy for a hour and already she was learning that he had a tendency to disappear and reappear without warning. "Level of damage looks about standard for a young swordsman."  
  
She flinched when she saw the bodies of the wolfen Beastmen, though it did leave her feeling slightly ill. Beating up monsters in the field was nothing to her, even with as little training as she had in weapons handling, but even she didn't like to imagine beastman, not terribly likeable people and her most immediate threat, being killed like this. Death, she knew, was something she'd encounter a lot on the road, especially if the kingdoms went to war one couldn't be weak-stomached at this kind of thing, but she was new to the school still, and willing to admit it unsettled her. Oddly enough, Hawk didn't seem at all bothered by the carnage, walking up and removing a money pouch from one of the corpses in an almost casual fashion. Upon seeing this, Angela once again questioned whether she'd chosen her company well... actually, come to think of it, she hadn't chosen at all, Duran had become impatient and left without her....  
  
Shaking her head to clear it of such thoughts - after all, this guy had to be a wimp, he'd crumpled under Riesz's almost gentle blow - she stoically followed the thief as he lead the way through the fallen barrels and bodies, mentally cursing Duran for putting her in this predicament. Of course, it was hard to be mad at someone who you found irresistibly attractive, but she did her best.  
  
She snapped out of her moody reverie when Hawk spoke again. "I thinking from these footprints it was that knight Duran."  
  
She blinked, staring at the Navarrian in surprise. "You actually bothered to notice what types of shoes he was wearing?" Even herself, who had quickly become infatuated, hadn't memorised the man to that kind of particular degree. Was this guy gay or something? What kind of man noticed what shoes another was wearing in an idle conversation?  
  
Hawk shrugged. "In my profession, it helps to be observant of the most minor details. Besides, there weren't too many other Knights of Forcena walking around and these prints are heavy and deep, standard for most Forcenans, and about the right size for his height."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I believe you," Angela said, waving at him to not bother explaining further; just as well, because it didn't look like he intended to explain anything beyond that as it was.  
  
"Shall we?" He grinned, offering her an arm as they made their way through the remains of the barricade.  
  
She did her best 'I'm-a-royal-princess-who-could-order-you-to-be-executed' glare and swatted it away. The trip to Wendel that two hours ago she'd been looking forward to more than her birthday, was suddenly starting to look a lot like hell.  
  
_________________  
  
Wow.... that chapter was pretty long for me. Don't get used to it. Remember to read and review! 


	3. A City Full of Loonies

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Ha ha ha, the ultimate disclaimer! If I don't tell you what it is I don't own, you don't know if you can sue me! (Dances around in a circle in happiness at outsmarting the legal system).  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Don't know why you'd want to, though. Just for the sake of poking fun at Microsoft Word, I'll warn you all about running with scissors - though really, why don't you ever hear warnings about running with knives? I would have thought that would be considered to be a tad more dangerous....  
  
Author's note: For the official Author's Note (I call it official because it's the first one. I don't know if it actually makes it official, but it sure makes it sound important, so go read it!) see Chapter One, same with the warning. I'll tell you all in advance, though, that this fic may in parts seem like a very rough novelization of the game, but this is temporary, and the fic will stray in many parts more towards the character interaction. I just like putting in things like maybe the characters get tired and need to eat something other chocolate here and there. (Though eating nothing but chocolate sure sounds like a good life...)  
  
And finally in the lengthy intro... Response to Reviewers! (all three of you):  
  
Cookie Pixie: Hmm, yeah, well I needed a way to get Riesz on the sidelines again and that was the most convenient. Heh heh, writing Hawk's fliriting will be fun.... hmmm, the chapter's title sounds like a Sailor Moon episode? I thought more Slayers, but I guess you're right. Wasn't really intentional, but let's just say I was spoofing it so you can all think I'm terribly clever. Thanks for your review! And what are you doing with those two cents that I lost? Thief!  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Hey, a new reviewer! Hello! I agree, Seiken Densetsu is a fantastic game series - in my opinion they should remake the originals on one of the new consoles. There's my two cents I stole back from Cookie Pixie. Thanks for the great review!  
  
Laine: Your praise makes me blush! (Blushes). Thanks very much for your support and review! It means a lot, it really does! I sincerely hope you keep reading, as the opinion of another Hawk/Angela fan means a great deal to me. Hope I haven't set the standard too high early on, though.... now I have pressure, great. Ah well, thanks anyway!  
  
Well, that's everyone - thanks for your reviews! Oh, and before I forget, Merry Christmas everyone!  
  
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Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 3 - It's a Town Full of Loonies....  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The road to Wendel seemed eerily quiet and devoid of the usual treacherous wildlife that Angela had been hoping to release some of her current frustrations on. As for the source of those frustrations....  
  
"Seems like Duran cleared an entire path for us," Hawk announced cheerily, appearing at her side again. She jumped for what had to be the thirtieth time that day - dammit, the thief kept appearing and disappearing without warning! What was he, some sort of magician?  
  
The thought brought a pang to the Princess' heart that she preferred to ignore. If this street trash could use magic when she couldn't, the embarrassment would be too great for her to EVER come to terms with. She doubted he could though, and whilst she hadn't resorted to violence YET, once she did she was going to.....  
  
"Angie? Why are you grinning like that? Anyone ever tell you that you look like an evil demented seductress when you do that?"  
  
Clenching her fist and abandoning her internal monologue of the mean and horrible things she would do to the Navarrian once she learnt magic, Angela wasn't sure whether the fact he had started calling her 'Angie' or had just called her an evil demented seductress was the more irritating. "And has anyone ever told you that you look like an ill-educated street trash moron?" Oh yeah, that's telling him Angela, she said to herself sarcastically. Smooth. What had happened to her infamous wit that court officials so feared? And while she was asking herself questions, why hadn't she ditched this guy yet?  
  
"Hmmm, quite frequently," he replied. "After all, local law enforcement rarely think that the town idiot could have pulled off a successful heist."  
  
Angela deadpanned. Was he for real? It probably wasn't beyond this guy to pretend to be an idiot if it suited his own devices. She kept hoping that maybe the rabites that had apparently been cleared by a still-elusive Duran might return from the grave en-masse and take down the weaponless Hawk. Hey, miracles happened. She mightn't have been terribly lucky in just about anything in her life thus far, but surely that luck had to change at some point.  
  
"Why are you still following me, anyway? I'm starting to think you're a stalker, appearing from alleyways to take advantage of a girl in distress, then following them all through a dark city and into a forest? Really! Can't you get a girlfriend the way normal people do?" Angela stuck her nose up in the air, taking comfort in the gesture. She might be a Princess in exile, but she'd be damned if she'd let an exiled THIEF act surperior to her.  
  
Hawk shrugged. "There's only one walkable path in the direction I'm going, and it's not my fault you're going there too. If only your boyfriend Duran hadn't stood you up, it wouldn't have been a problem."  
  
"How- how- HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" Angela shrieked.  
  
"Shhh, you'll wake up the rabites that are still sleeping!" he shushed her, looking around nervously.  
  
"I don't care! How did you know? You really have been following me everywhere! You pervert!" This was the last straw. He was sticking his nose into her new-found not-quite-yet-a-relationship (okay, so she'd only known the guy for ten minutes and hadn't seen him since) with Duran, and he was gonna get it.  
  
She held up her cane threateningly. "EAT CANE, DIRTBAG! SPECIAL ANGRY ANGELA TECHNIQUE!" With all of her might, she swung the cane at the thief. Characteristic of both Hawk and her recent bad luck, he wasn't even there.  
  
"Whoa, Angie, are you trying to crack my skull open? You're not bad with that cane, did someone teach you?" Hawk appeared behind her, holding a hand to the back of his head and smiling.  
  
Surprised at the more civil conversation, Angela momentarily forgot that she was supposed to be angry. "Well yeah, Jose my magic teacher used to give me quarterstaffing lessons so I could defend myself until I learnt magic."  
  
"He must have been quite the teacher. Though what did you mean 'Special Angry Angela Technique'? Did you make that up?"  
  
Blushing with embarrassment - had she really said that aloud? - she huffed, "It just meant I was going on easy on you by not using one of my REAL techniques. Looking at how a little tap from Riesz had you gasping for air I thought it might've killed you. Consider it an example of my gracious pity."  
  
"Of course. How lucky I am to have you here to protect me," Hawk said, grinning at her again.  
  
She paused. Was that sarcasm or not? Shrugging, she stalked on ahead, knowing that he'd probably reappear in front of her without warning again. They'd been travelling all through the night and the morning, and she was starting to become too tired to bother making even civil conversation with the irritating desert rat.  
  
They trudged along in silence for a while, Hawk not seeming even slightly tired, which continued to irritate the Princess to no end. The spirits had to have hated her, that was the only explanation she could come up with for this horrible twist of fate which had beset her. The amazing Knight of Forcena Duran replaced with a low-born desert thief. She glanced up from under her lavendar hair and spotted the sign at the split-off road to Astoria. That was it, time to take things into her own hands!  
  
"Maybe we-" Angela stopped herself at the last moment - since when had she started to think of this guy as a travelling companion? She didn't have to ask his permission about anything! "I'm going to stop by at Astoria and get some sleep. There's no point walking all the way toWendel and being too tired to even see the priest."  
  
If he noticed his exclusion from the plans, he didn't seem bothered by it, in fact, he proceeded to even endorse it. "It's a good idea, but I wouldn't stay there for too long. Get out as soon as you've had your rest," he said, proceeding to turn as if to make his way along the path leading to Wendel.  
  
What? Was he warning her or something? "Why?"  
  
"Just trust me on that one," he called over his shoulder. Angela counted to ten in her head to restrain herself from attempting to take another embarrassing thwack at him with her cane - the thing'd probably break on his thick skull.  
  
"Where are you going?!" she called as he proceeded to continue walking.  
  
"To Wendel, of course! Maybe I'll see you there!"  
  
"But-" She fell silent as he moved out of ear shot. How DARE he ditch her like that? Immediately kicking herself for caring, and reminding herself that this was what she wanted, Angela walked, well, more like stomped, the rest of the way to Astoria, muttering unpleasantries beneath her breath. She cared more about the fact that he was apparently able to keep going after how many days of no sleep? - than she was about him leaving. In fact, she reminded herself, the fact that he was leaving ought to have made it the best day she'd had in months.  
  
Still, his warning worried her more than she'd admit. It was a well-known fact that most desert thieves were also accredited spies. Did he have information that she didn't?  
  
Stubbornly refusing to let herself worry over the matter of Hawk any longer, Angela entered the sunny town of Astoria by the middle of the day, in its full-fledged rural trading glory. She immediately nearly tripped over a young girl doing nothing but running in circles and talking about Fairies. Resisting the urge to trip the child over, Angela simply avoided her and stood in the village square, taking a moment to figure out what to do next. Being a village, she wasn't terribly sure if it was a good idea to go shopping at night because the stores would probably all be closed. She'd have to stave off her exhaustion for just a bit longer and get a meal and some supplies while she could.  
  
Never one to think on an empty stomach, she promptly decided food would have to be the first agenda. Since there weren't too many places to eat in a village the size of Astoria, it didn't take long to decide where she'd be getting this meal. She used what she could of her money to buy a spread not quite worthy of a Princess, she felt, but would do. Though she'd received several lecherous glances from some of the local drunks, her trusty cane had quickly deflected the attention of everyone, including the bartender. The trials of being beautiful......  
  
Trying to distract herself from dwelling on the fact that she'd scored and lost two travelling companions in the space of a couple of days, the violet- haired Princess of Altena busied herself with the matter of locating a new cane, especially after beating up the local drunks it really was starting to look worse for wear, and she wanted to have a nice new shiny one just in case she met Hawk in Wendel and had the chance to try it out. Again, sheer lack of choice in Astoria meant it didn't take much canvassing of the weapons shops to find an appropriate staff.  
  
"Can I exchange this staff for that one?" she asked the shop attendant, not bothering with the usual pleasantries.  
  
Raising an eyebrow at the decreipt state of her cane, the shopkeeper said, "For that alone you probably couldn't even get a night at the inn."  
  
Sighing, and resisting the urge to shout 'well, obviously!', she simply smiled and offered sweetly, batting her eyelashes, "What about one of these bracelets? Quality gold and real gemstones, from Gemstone Valley itself!"  
  
She handed one over for inspection from the collection on her wrist. Eyeing it critically, the shopkeeper said, "You'd need three of those and that cane to get this staff."  
  
Without the strength or will in her for bartering, Angela sighed and handed three of her beloved bracelets over. Victor had given them to her, but she was sure Victor would understand her well-being far outshone any sentimental value the jewellery held.  
  
'I will not complain, I will not complain' she chanted to herself in her head. Hawk's words rang true to her - she was in exile, now, and that meant trading some of the luxuries she'd been accustomed to as royalty of a prosperous nation.  
  
The shopkeeper was cheery at the successful sale, handing her the new staff with the usual I'm-a-shopkeeper-who-just-ripped-someone-off enthusiasm. "Pleasure doing business with you Miss. Oh, by the way, don't carry that around with you in the town like it's a weapon. Folk are a bit jittery after those floating lights at night."  
  
"Riiiiight," Angela agreed. Floating lights at night? The shopkeeper was crazy as well as stingy.  
  
Hurrying outside, Angela noticed it was mid-afternoon, and figured if she went to the inn to get some sleep now she could be on her way in the early hours of the morning - even if she didn't particularly like Hawk, it could be prudent to take his warnings to heart and spend as little time as possible here.... Besides, she heard that it was quite the walk through the Cave of Waterfalls before you got to Wendel on the other side and she'd have to leave before the sun rose if she wanted to make it there by evening for the next day.  
  
Walking to the inn, the violet-haired girl noticed an elderly woman sitting in the village square muttering to herself. Overcome with a sudden unexplainable bout of charity, she stopped by the woman. "Are you alright? Anything I can help you with?"  
  
After another moment of muttering, the old woman raised her head in Angela's general direction. Focusing on her face, the elder replied, "The lights... everyone's been talking about them. We think they might be magical. A Goddess has come to warn Astoria of impending doom!"  
  
Rolling her eyes and wondering why she wasted the effort, Angela simply left the old hag to her own devices and hurried on to the inn, hoping not to meet any more of the delusional wackos on the way. Slapping her remaining currency on the service counter, she barked at the innkeeper, "I want to stay for the night."  
  
"Certainly, Miss," he pleasantly replied, taking the money and giving her such a small amount of change it didn't seem worth the effort. It was a pain having to pay for things herself. "Go into the back room and take a bed there any time you want. Oh, and if that floating night at light bothers you, feel free to close the curtains."  
  
"Right, thanks," Angela said, grabbing the money and making a bee-line for the back of the inn. That settled it, this entire town was insane! She should have simply put off her much-needed sleep and gone with the irritating thief to Wendel straight away.  
  
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Another chapter done, hope you liked it, please don't flame! This might take a brief hiatus on updates over Christmas, given on how much time I'll have over the holiday season (part-time holiday jobs are harder than they appear). Hopefully, though, I should be able to manage to keep up a decent pace. Until then, have a Merry Christmas everyone! 


	4. Introduction to the World's Smallest Dei...

Disclaimer: Working on Christmas Day earns you a lot of money, so now I may actually get to own this computer I write this on! However, I still won't own Seiken Densetsu. Life's cruel, ne?  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. It's a terribly old story by now. If there needs to be warnings on anything in this fic, it's for lame innuendos and sappy stuff. I try to keep it acceptable, but sometimes I feel as though I may make myself sick (I have zero tolerance for excess sappiness).  
  
Author's note: Welcome back after the Christmas 'break'! I didn't really take a break, I actually did more work over Christmas than what I usually do any other day of the year, hence the brief lack of updates. Evil employers taking advantage of people living alone to make them work on Christmas Day.... I might start inventing some imaginary relatives to visit me. I think I'll name them Cookie Pixie, Laine, and Truewind. What's everyone's opinion?  
  
Blah blah blah blah Response to Reviewers! (blah):  
  
Laine: Merry Belated Christmas to you too! (That reminds me, I never did send out Christmas cards...) Sorry about making Hawk leave, but it was kind of necessary for a later part of the story (I'm doing everything out of order. Ah well, author's privileges. We don't have many.) so he will be coming back! (Eventually....) The second chapter is still my favourite thus far too - that chapter just rolled off my fingers and escaped. Like I said, I think I created too high a standard to hold myself to too early....  
  
Truewind: Hey! I know you! I've been reading your story 'Seeds of Mana'! I remember freaking out because I'd already put the concept of this story down then I read yours and had to go change all sorts of things so I wasn't accused of plagarising! You made my life so hard! But since you reviewed, you are forgiven (your story is good, too). Fair enough about the couples, I myself quite enjoy the Hawk/Riesz pairing and have another story in working with that but for the time being Hawk/Angela remains my favourite couple. I'm sorry about the grammar errors, sometimes when switching files here and there I forget which ones I've spell-checked and proof-read and which ones I haven't, please feel free to inform me of any mistakes or typos and I'll do my best to correct them. Though I couldn't find where I had spelt 'Fliratatious' with the extra 'a'. Maybe I fixed that and forgot about it. Or maybe your grammar is just much better than mine. Thanks for your review, and hope you keep reading!  
  
That looks like about it. Ugh, a DROP in the number of reviews. Not usually a terribly good sign. Oh well. It lets me write exceedingly long- winded responses to those that do review. Hope you like the chapter.  
  
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Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 4 - Introduction to the World's Smallest Deity  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Angela awoke after a decent amount of sleep a couple of hours before sunrise. Spending just enough time to make herself presentable, which most people would probably readily agree was far more than necessary, she picked up her new staff and her remaining rations and made her way out of the inn. The same crazy innkeeper was there - maybe that was why he talked about strange lights, the lack of sleep must have made him delusional - and she simply nodded good morning, making her way to the door.  
  
It was stupid to even nod to these people. Apparently in their language it was an open invitation to start a conversation. "If you see that Knight out there, be sure to tell him that if he leaves he has to pay for another night."  
  
Despite her silent resolution to not to talk to any more people in this town, Angela stopped in her tracks. "Knight?"  
  
The innkeeper nodded vigorously. "Yes, some Knight carrying an old sword came in after you went to sleep and rented a room. Yet about an hour or two ago he suddenly went running out - I was asleep, but I woke up when I heard his footsteps. Pass along the message, okay?"  
  
It seemed like all the businessmen in this town were stingy bastards. "Fine, if I see him, I'll tell him." It couldn't have been Duran, could it? She couldn't have possibly missed the handsome Knight AGAIN!  
  
.....Fate really did hate her. That was the only explanation.  
  
Already bad mood turning more sour than cheap vinegar, the Princess stomped from the inn into the deserted town. She paused.... oh yeah, it was still really early in the morning, wasn't it? Everyone was probably in bed. Sighing, she stubbornly headed back along the path that led to the Cave of Waterfalls. If it wasn't for Hawk playing weird mind games with her, she probably would be too.  
  
Dammit.... Duran must've seen her in the inn, why hadn't he woken her up?! And why had he rushed out like that? Maybe there was something in the water of Astoria that made people act strangely....  
  
There were still no rabites to speak of on the road, which annoyed the lavender-hair girl more than it should have - she had wanted to try out her new cane to see if she was ripped off or not. After all, it would be embarrassing if on its first use bashing in some stranger's head it broke. When it seemed like none of the irritatingly cute little monsters would appear, she settled in for a long and lonely walk to Wendel. At least she got to see another sunrise. Not that watching the sun rise ever made her feel better, but given how she was always allowed to sleep in back in Altena, she hadn't seen many of them.  
  
Altena.....  
  
No! She WOULDN'T think about Altena or anybody in it until she had learnt magic. Only then could she even CONSIDER returning. And to learn magic she had to ask the guidance of the Holy Priest in Wendel.  
  
Chanting this mantra in her head to keep herself walking, she was considerably surprised when she walked directly into a brick wall.  
  
Falling on her backside and holding her nose, letting out a stream of curses that no well-brought up Princess should ever know, Angela opened her eyes to regard this apparently ill-placed brick wall in the middle of nowhere..... gone?  
  
Thinking frantically back to Astoria, the Princess wondered if perhaps insanity was contagious. Maybe Hawk really was warning her for a legitimate reason. Reaching out on instinct, she nearly screamed when her hand hit what appeared to be a barrier of solid..... air?  
  
Mentally attempting to retrieve the whole two or three lessons she actually paid attention to Jose in, Angela quickly surmised (okay, it took her two or three minutes, but she was out of Astoria so now she had time to spare) that it was a magical barrier. Probably put up by the Holy Priest at Wendel, if her magic senses were worth anything - which, she supposed, they weren't. If they had been, her mother probably wouldn't have tried to kill her.  
  
Ignoring this conclusion, she set about testing all the area available on the narrow path, directly before the targeted Cave of Waterfalls. Another good hour later, she came back to the same spot, the look of mild irritation escalated to barely contained raging frustration. Where was Hawk when she needed something to beat up?!  
  
It was a magical barrier, so after she had bruised herself many times trying to break through it, she made another startling conclusion: That there was no getting in manually through this incredibly powerful shield. Which meant it required magic to deactivate. Fantastic. That was just glorious.  
  
The Princess of Altena glared at the magical barrier blocking the entrance to the caves, as if the sheer force of her anger alone would break the spell. Was this some sort of nasty trick by the Priest of Wendel? She had to see him to learn how to get magic, and maybe find out what made her mother suddenly go so weird on her, but to get past this barrier she NEEDED magic. Not for the first time, she found herself regretting ditching Hawk - the wily thief might have just been smart enough to figure out a way around it.  
  
Sitting down on the ground, just about ready to give in to a good cry, Angela was shocked out of her despondent mental self-beration by a vaguely familiar voice.  
  
"Are you okay Miss? Can I help you?"  
  
She turned around, and it was like looking from the shadows into the sun again.  
  
"DURAN?!"  
  
The Knight smiled and offered her a hand up. "What's a young lady like you doing travelling all by herself? The roads aren't safe these days, you know."  
  
Standing up, dazed by her apparent change in luck, Angela was so stupefied she forgot just about every flirting technique she had refined over the many years. "What are you doing here? I thought you left Astoria hours ago!"  
  
Duran didn't seem at all perturbed by the fact that she knew that. "I was following the light, and it took a while."  
  
'Oh no, they got to him too!' Angela fretted. Remembering herself, she tried to muster all the outrage she could - which wasn't easy, especially when faced with the object of her most recent fantasies - and spat out, "And while you're answering questions, why did you ditch me back in Jad?!"  
  
Blinking, Duran thought hard for a moment. "What's your name?"  
  
"Angela!" How could have forgotten her? Strangers she met even on the street years before could remember her face!  
  
"Well, Angela, you say you were at Jad AND Astoria? Wow, you travelled all that way by yourself, you must be able to take pretty good care of yourself."  
  
"Well, yeah...." After a very brief fight with her conscience, she decided not to bother mentioning the fact that he had pretty much cleared most of the path before her and Hawk.  
  
"And what was it I was supposed to do?" he asked.  
  
It was lucky he was so damn good-looking, because she probably would've beaten him up for being so thick by now. But violence was rarely the way to get someone to like you.... at least, in her experience. She thought Riesz's lack of suitors was probably evidence enough, anyway. The Amazon might have been easy to insult, but she was extremely difficult to dodge.  
  
"You were supposed to meet me by the gates at Jad at sunset, so we could go to Wendel together!"  
  
Duran looked at her blankly. "Um, what did you say your name was again?"  
  
"Angela," she repeated through gritted teeth to stop herself from screaming at him.  
  
"Oh yeah, that's right!" His eyes lit up as he FINALLY remembered her. "The pretty girl who also wanted to take revenge on the Red Wizard!"  
  
Angela blushed - he called her pretty! A little chibi-Angela danced in happy circles in her head before she quickly shook it out - she was far too mature to get all gushy because some guy called her pretty. For the Goddess's sake, it happened all the time! Granted, usually in those circumstances it was because some lewd guy was hitting on her; maybe she really ought to look into a less revealing dress sometime.....  
  
Remembering that she was supposed to be in her famed flirting mode, Angela batted her thick eyelashes at him. "That's right! I was on my way to Wendel as well! Then this damn barrier-" Angela caught herself before she could begin ranting. It would do no good to show her 'angry mode' as Victor liked to call it, to Duran of all people.  
  
Suddenly, a shimmering light lifted out of Duran's head and began speaking. "It's a magic barrier put up by the High Priest of Wendel. Most likely to keep the Beastmen from attacking, I suppose."  
  
Pinching herself, Angela deduced it was not a dream. She had gone crazy like all the other people in Astoria. A freaking LIGHT was speaking to her! "Duran, why is there a light hovering above your head saying that?!"  
  
"Oh, that! Angela, meet the Fairy from the Mana Holyland!" Duran introduced happily.  
  
The Princess blinked. The light hovered down closer and dimmed considerably, until Angela could make out a faintly glowing Fairy small enough to sit on the palm of her hand.  
  
She must've developed incredible self-control recently without realising it, because for some reason this did not faze her. "And what, may I say, are you doing in Duran's head?"  
  
Was it her imagination, or did the small entity blush? "It's rather embarrassing, but I was on a mission from the Mana Holyland to choose the Mana Knight to save the world and I decided to pick Duran!..... But because I'm so weak I can't travel independently anymore, and I have to rest inside his head."  
  
"You say that so casually," Angela commented, struggling to process the information and its implications. She turned her doubtful gaze towards Duran, struggling to hold on to her train of thought and not melt into a puddle of love when she made eye contact. "The fact that you're possessed by a Fairy doesn't bother you?"  
  
Duran blinked again. "Should it?"  
  
"Hey!" The Fairy protested. "I did not possess him!"  
  
Angela sighed. She wasn't sure about the whole deal the Fairy was going on about, she'd have to get the details for that later. Her main concern primarily was that now this Fairy would apparently be constantly with Duran, meaning it could be just about forever until she actually got some alone-time with the guy. It was a bit harder to throw yourself at someone when there was an audience. After all, you don't just sit down and say 'let's make love!' when someone, even if it is a tiny Fairy, is watching.  
  
"Never mind then," the Princess said, dismissing the topic as secondary for the time being. Mana Knight, huh? That sounded even better than a Knight of Forcena. Victor had always said she knew how to pick them. "I'm still trying to get to Wendel but the High Priest put up this magical barrier and I can't get in. Any bright ideas?" She mentally slapped herself after this statement. Duran didn't seem like the type who had bright ideas in surplus.  
  
The Fairy floated up and around in an aimless pattern. "Hmmm.... he must've sensed the Beastmen's attack on Astoria and thrown up that barrier so that they couldn't get through."  
  
"Whoa, wait a minute, back up!" Angela demanded. "What happened to Astoria?"  
  
Duran looked regretful. "I came back to Astoria just after sunrise when I found the Fairy. The town was completely destroyed. Everyone was either killed or had fled. The Beastmen attacked without mercy."  
  
Speechless at this revelation, the lavender-haired girl suddenly found herself clutching her staff for support. Hawk had known? He had warned her to get out as soon as possible, and if it weren't for that warning she probably would have been in Astoria during that attack.....  
  
She fought the urge to be sick. Astoria might've seemed like an odd town, and she didn't like it very much, but she'd never wish that on anyone (other than Koren, of course). The mere fact that her own life had been so close to being forfeit.....  
  
Blinking when she realised that she had at some point switched to clutching Duran's arm for support, Angela mentally fought to wrest control of the situation. Okay, an unexpected compromising position, but she could make the most of it. She pulled his arm closer, and tried her best to look faint - for once not requiring too much effort. "The Beastmen passed so close by? They're not still here, are they? I... I'm so afraid...."  
  
Hook, line and sinker. Duran almost physically puffed up with the chance to prove his manliness in protecting the fragile damsel in distress. "Don't you worry, Angela, they're gone, but I'll protect you!"  
  
Satisfied, Angela let go of his arm and clasped her hands together in mock admiration. Her, scared of running into Beastmen? Well, maybe, but she would never sit in a corner and cry about it. "Thank you! I feel much more confident now." Out of the corner of her vision, she saw the Fairy rolling her eyes at what the small entity easily perceived to be a completely fake display. Oh yeah... she'd almost forgotten she was there.  
  
"Well," she said, turning brusque again as she wheeled on the Fairy. It destroyed the illusion somewhat, but she doubted Duran would over-analyse it. Now she actually had the chance to spend some time with him, her campaign should be both easy and short. "Have you figured out what to do about that barrier yet? Duran and I have to get to the Wendel, and if I'm not mistaken you probably do too, so?"  
  
Frowning at how the Princess was addressing her, the Fairy replied, "I think I can break it utilising the natural energies of that waterfall. Just give me a moment." Glow brightening again around her, the miniature deity appeared to be concentrating very hard. After several moments, she opened her eyes again. "All done!"  
  
"What?!" Angela exclaimed. How could she be done already when she'd just spent over an hour trying to figure out a way through the damn shield?! As if perhaps she was hoping to prove the Fairy wrong somehow, Angela stuck out her hand and met.... nothing but air.  
  
Blushing with embarrassment, she grabbed Duran by the wrist and started physically dragging him along, remembering at the last moment to add, "Hurry up, Duran, I need you to protect me in here. I hate the dark!"  
  
"Well, even if I'm pretty tired, I might be able to help with that!" the Fairy offered, settling herself on Duran's head and brightening her glow.  
  
'She's supposed to be an emissary of the Mana Goddess. I can't kill her, I can't kill her, I can't kill her,' Angela insisted to herself, grinding her teeth together and smiling sweetly at the two. Well, that just destroyed one of her plans. Still, it was a long walk to Wendel through the Cave of Waterfalls. She had plenty of tricks up her sleeve yet.  
  
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Hmm, that's probably not the world's best stopping place but the next chapter still needs a lot of work so I'll have to beg you all to be patient with me. Don't forget to read and review! I adore all of you. (i.e. All two or three of you.) 


	5. Cave of Waterfalls, Romantic Destination...

Disclaimer: My New Year's Resolution is to own Seiken Densetsu/Secret of Mana. But since I never do keep my New Year's Resolutions, I do not, and never will, own it (unless I get some juicy piece of gossip on the creators that I can use as blackmail.)  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Still nothing special to warn about. Any warnings will come from vaguely disturbing/silly chapters a little later on, but it'll be another couple of chapters before we come to anything like that, so heck, you could probably get away with PG rating for now. Well, you've been warned. Oh, and I'm also getting feedback from Duran/Angela fans. I'm not sure if maybe you skipped over my lengthy prologue in the first chapter or not, but the Duran/Angela pairing IS NOT PERMANENT! In fact, it will never actually fully come to pass. It is a merely a catalyst for another pairing. Just want to clear that up. Thanks for your reviews!  
  
Author's note: Happy New Year! Yeah, I know it's not New Year's yet, and for those of you who celebrate other New Years it's way too early (or extremely late, as the case may be) but since I probably won't be able to update again until 2003 I thought the greetings are best handed out now. I also want to apologise for slightly shorter chapter this time around - it was a lot longer originally, but it underwent quite a bit of editing to stop it from becoming too boring. (I mean, it was really getting boring. It was starting to look like I was novelizing the game, and though I may follow the events of the game more-or-less in this fic, that is not the primary aim). I could've finished proof-reading the next chapter earlier and tacked the two together, but I figured a quick update might have been more preferable than a longer chapter. Or something.  
  
Response to Reviewers! (all two of you):  
  
Duran the Gladiator: Thanks for your review, but I was surprised to get a review from a Duran fan, given that I sure dump on Duran in this quite a bit. I'd like to warn you (in case you didn't read any of my lengthy prologue) that if you're looking for an Angela/Duran pairing in this, you'd better stop reading about halfway through. Like I said, it's merely a catalyst for a Hawk/Angela pairing. Thanks to everyone's favourite gladiator! (Or, as the case may be, only gladiator.)  
  
LOOK: (at what?) Another person agrees that Duran is dumb! (Prances around in a circle). Thanks for the praise. Though I can't quite figure out what you mean by writing a 'decent' Duran/Angela fic for my next story. Does that mean there are no 'decent' Duran/Angela fics out there, or does it mean that this one ISN'T 'decent'? (given that it's not even meant to be Duran/Angela). In fact, what IS your meaning of 'decent' in this context? Ugh, I think I'm giving myself (and probably everyone else) a headache. Thanks for your review anyway, I appreciate it.  
  
Enough from me, hope you enjoy the chapter! Please don't forget to review! If people aren't reading it, I'm not going to bother to keep writing it.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 5 - Cave of Waterfalls, Romantic Destination No.1 - Not.  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The Cave if Waterfalls would have been a beautiful, and probably even romantic place, it if weren't for several small, slightly irritating things.  
  
Firstly, Angela thought, grinding her teeth together, was the damn Fairy. The entity might have been knowledgeable and practically a deity, but when they were walking along with no immediate threat or goal, she sure could be smart-mouthed. Again, Angela wished that Hawk were there. As much as she hated to admit it, the quick-witted thief might have been able to set the small entity in her place.  
  
The second thing that was beginning to grind her nerves was how much more difficult Duran was being. He certainly was enjoying playing bodyguard, but beyond that, no messages seemed to be getting through, making the Fairy guffaw in a most un-fairy-like manner at her. Duran had to be playing hard- to-get to have blantantly missed every innuendo she'd thrown at him in the past few hours. Apparently her campaign was going to be longer and harder than she'd previously imagined.  
  
Finally, were the zombies. And the bats. And the consequent bat droppings (she and the Fairy had already exchanged a long argument over whether guano referred to bat droppings or bird droppings).  
  
Other than that, the Cave of Waterfalls would have been the perfect place to woo her new object of affection.  
  
"Dammit! Stupid un-dead!" Angela thwacked her cane mercilessly upon another zombie that appeared from the shadows, Duran currently being occupied by another two so was unable to come to her aid. She'd already been playing the damsel-in-distress thing to the hilt already; there was not point over-working it. She wasn't terribly satisfied at how her cane was holding up, though - it didn't seem solid enough to take this kind of abuse; against a soft cute rabite was one thing, against the hard skull of a zombie was quite another. Also, it wasn't heavy enough for her to get any real velocity on her swings. Maybe she should look into getting another new one at Wendel.  
  
The zombie fell to the ground in an unceremonious, unconscious heap. Well, actually it was quite likely dead again, but it was far too gory for the princess to acknowledge any other way. Her opponent taken care of, she waited patiently as Duran dispatched his, keeping an eye out for any other monsters that may be lurking.  
  
"Why are all these zombies in the Cave of Waterfalls anyway? I thought these caves were in a protected area!" Angela complained mostly to the Fairy - Duran was still out of breath from their latest encounter.  
  
"It's because of Mana," the Fairy replied. She appeared worried. "There's something wrong with the Mana Tree, and I suspect it has something to do with the Mana Stones and all the invasions going on at the moment. When evil rises in this quantity, Mana becomes directly affected and monsters begin to appear full-force in the countryside where paths were once safe. Strongholds of clean Mana energy will still remain pure, but the overall balance is thrown into jeopardy."  
  
Angela recalled some of the details from magic classes of course, and felt tempted to point it out as common knowledge, but she was still in a good mood from finding Duran again so she let it slide. Though if she didn't get out of these irritating Caves of Waterfalls soon the remnants of that good mood could quickly dissipate.  
  
Walking along, she was in the middle of informing the Fairy about the more intricate details of her personal quest - Duran didn't seem as bothered by the fact that she was from Altena as she expected - when she was rudely interrupted by a piercing scream.  
  
Halting in her tracks, the Princess covered her ears. "What's with the noise? Cut it out!"  
  
Duran, though, was ready to leap to hero role as usual. "It sounds like someone's in trouble up ahead!" He took off running both with both the Fairy and Angela struggling to catch up, the Fairy tiring out quickly and having to grab onto Angela's hair for a free ride to stop from being left behind.  
  
"I shouldn't have ever left his head, even for a little while!" the Fairy complained.  
  
"Ouch! That hurts!" Angela protested, then shrieking as she slipped on some guano and thudded onto her backside. "Ow..... And this dress was all nice and clean too!"  
  
The Fairy abandoned her vehicle and floated back over the Duran. "Duran, who's this?"  
  
The Knight had run up ahead to pull what seemed to be a small child from falling to her death. "I don't know. Are you okay, kid?"  
  
"Carlie's not a kid!" the little bundle of robes, blonde hair and blue eyes shouted at him. "Carlie's fifteen years old! By the way, thank you for saving Carlie."  
  
"Fifteen years old?" Angela said incredulously, getting back up and dusting herself off. "She looks about five!"  
  
Suddenly, Angela found herself blocking a swinging ball and chain, sheer reflexes all that saved her from it connecting with her face. She was amazed the staff didn't crack in two after that impact! Where was Duran her protector now? "Carlie already said she's fifteen! Carlie don't like you!"  
  
"By the Goddess, the kid has a mace!" Angela yelled, still jittery from her near brush with Carlie's friend.  
  
"Shhhh, calm down Carlie," Duran soothed, patting her springy blonde hair. "Don't listen to Angela, she's just had a bad day. What are you doing all alone in a place like this?"  
  
Carlie began sniffing, clutching Duran's shirt. 'I will not get jealous of a little kid, I will not get jealous over a little kid' Angela repeated over and over again in her head. "Carlie was looking for Heath, but Carlie got lost. Caves are scary....."  
  
Angela hoped to the Goddess that she didn't sound so pathetic when she was whimpering to get Duran's attention. The little urchin was already just asking to be punched in her opinion. The Fairy must have been psychic or something, because she sent her a dirty look, to which the Princess responded with an innocent smile.  
  
"There there, Carlie," Duran said, giving her a hug. Angela was certain she was about to have a coronary occulsion. "Dry those dears. Who's Heath?"  
  
"Heath Carlie's friend. Heath disappeared, so Carlie go look for him. Heath's Priest of Light at Wendel."  
  
"WHAT?" Angela couldn't hold her tongue any longer. "You mean the Priest I've travelled all this way just to see isn't even there anymore?"  
  
Duran sent her a dirty look that clearly said 'you're going to make the kid cry again', which she shrank away from. Great, now she was making backwards progress with Duran. Fortunately for her, though, this didn't seem to bother Carlie too much.  
  
"No. High Priest is Carlie's Grandfather. Different," the young girl insisted. After a moment, she stared starry-eyed at Duran. "What's your name?"  
  
"Duran," he replied easily. Well, it was an easy enough question, after all.  
  
"Duran! Duran! Will Duran help Carlie out of Caves?"  
  
"Of course. Let's get you back to Wendel, okay?" Duran said, standing and taking her hand.  
  
"YAY! Carlie likes Duran!" Carlie immediately gave the Knight an enthusiastic hug.  
  
Angela couldn't take it anymore. Yanking the small girl off him, she hissed, "Stop that!" The Fairy snickered.  
  
"Angela! What's your problem?!"  
  
"We're on a mission here! She'll just be a whole lot of trouble!"  
  
Carlie was glaring at the Princess of Altena now. "You're mean! Carlie hates the slutty girl!"  
  
Said slutty girl was left with her mouth hanging open. Where did a pidgin- English speaking Priest's granddaughter learn that kind of language? Even the Fairy raised an eyebrow at that one, but had the decency to not say anything. Even so, she muttered to Angela, "Would you really be so cruel as to leave a defenceless child to fend for herself in these caves?"  
  
"Defenceless my eye! She nearly took off my head with that ball and chain of hers!"  
  
"But Angela, you need Duran to protect you in these caves. Surely a kid is even more deserving of protection...."  
  
Shoulders sagging in defeat, Angela admitted to herself that not even she could bring herself to be cold-hearted enough to leave the dim-witted Carlie all on her own in these zombie-bat-guano infested caves. "Fine," she agreed begrudgingly. Carlie was still glaring at her, poking out her tongue and brazenly taking Duran's hand, who began to patiently walk with the younger girl ahead of them. She could see them talking happily. Duran sure had a way with kids - especially ones who claimed to be fifteen years old. She'd be having words with the little urchin's grandpa when they finally got to Wendel.  
  
Once again Angela was left only with the company of the Fairy. They stood, or in the Fairy's case, floated, there for a moment in silence. At last, the Fairy offered, "For what it's worth, I think she's more irritating than you."  
  
"Don't forget our difference in size here, insect," she snapped, then began to grumpily stomp after the happy couple up ahead. Even Hawk was better company than this lot.  
  
The Fairy sat wordlessly on her head. At least she didn't have to worry about too many monsters - she saw evidence of Carlie's somewhat insane rampage ahead of them; the caves were half-deserted. Only one or two cases did she see actual ball-and-chain damage, though. She had probably started crying and they all ran away from the noise.  
  
Her sadistic grin soon became wan again when she saw Duran laughing with Carlie. It was just a kid, but her high hopes for any sort of quick- building relationship with Duran were going down in proverbial flames.  
  
Duran was starting to look out of her league. Maybe that Heath was better- looking. 


	6. Never walk in on a Princess in the Bath

Disclaimer: I own a T.V. so old it's classified as antique, a suitcase of clothes, a computer, a phone, and an ample anime collection. Is Seiken Densetsu on that list? No, no it is not. Therefore logically, I do not own it. Leave me alone, you wretches of the legal system!  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. If this weren't a fic, I'd rate this chapter for nudity, but since there's no pictures involved we'll all be fine. And the occasional bit of language, nothing that wasn't warned in the general warning. As well as the usual complete disregard for most of the storyline. I should also warn you in advance that now Hawk's back I tend to idolize him in this fic, Hawk's my favourite character so it's to be expected. Just so you know.  
  
Author's note: Well, I guess this is the true Happy New Year, welcome to 2003 people! (In my opinion 2002 wasn't all that crash hot anyway). I don't think there's anything else here worth saying, other than if you're reading, please drop a review, and to quote another fanfic writer, reviews are after all a writer's salary! (I would prefer money, but the disclaimer means I don't get any. Darn it!)  
  
Response to said Reviewers!:  
  
Laine: A line about spanking, eh? Hmm, I think I could make something out of that one... Thanks for your review, glad to see you're still with me on this one.  
  
Cookie Pixie: Hmmm, it would be interesting to figure out some way to get Carlie along to Forcena.... nah, that'd be butching too much of the story. Carlie will make cameos at best. Heh heh, it's funny though. Thanks for giving me some feedback, fair enough about just skimming for the time being, though you should be happy that Hawk's back now. Like I said, I'm changing the storyline of the game to suit my own purposes. I guess I do torment Angela a bit, probably my a side-effect of my usual genre of angst. And forget the two cents - Hawk didn't give you my entire wallet, did he? I can't find it anywhere!  
  
Truewind: Thanks for the review, I'm glad if you're liking this story, nothing brightens my day like a positive review! As for the morningstar question - well, just read this chapter. Hope to keep hearing from you!  
  
Well, I'm sure you're all sick of me by now so on with the chapter. Don't forget to review!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 6 - Never walk in on a Princess in a bath.  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
"Finally," Angela moaned when they emerged from the darkness of the Cave of Waterfalls onto the path that led to Wendel. She was absolutely filthy, covered in cobwebs, grime and guano. She didn't smell too good, either. And a good image was essential when one was trying to gain the attentions of a certain Knight.  
  
Carlie smirked at her, still holding Duran's hand. The Princess gritted her teeth. "Carlie is back in Wendel! Thank you so much Duran!"  
  
Duran certainly was getting along well with Carlie - he'd barely even looked at Angela while he had the younger, more fragile damsel in distress to protect. She'd been more or less on her own when it came to defending herself from the zombies and bats and other disgusting creatures that naturally inhabited such caves, which was probably just as well because by now she had gained a lot of pent-up frustration that she had to let out. The Fairy was her only company for most of the rest of the trip, which made her wonder why she had even bothered possessing Duran if she was just going to float around and annoy other people instead - she was Duran's responsibility, he ought to take it seriously! At least the Fairy was impressed with her skill with the staff - with all the practice the last couple of days she was getting pretty good.  
  
"Where's your home, Carlie?" Duran asked kindly.  
  
Carlie suddenly looked nervous. "Ummm.... very late. Carlie's home all closed up now. People won't let Carlie in at this hour."  
  
Angela deadpanned. "You're joking."  
  
"You're right, it is pretty late," Duran agreed. The sun might have set, but this was sounding like an excuse to the Princess. "Well, you can just stay the night at the inn with us, then."  
  
Suddenly overcome with a coughing fit, Duran finally paid some attention to her. "You all right, Princess Angela?"  
  
'Princess Angela'? That was a tad formal for someone he met on the road, wasn't it?  
  
Maybe that was why Duran was suddenly acting so dense to her come-ons! When he found out that she was Princess of Altena while she was telling the Fairy her own tale of woe, he must have cared about her political affiliation more than he let on! Of course! Someone who personally knew the Red Wizard Koren who attacked Forcena would automatically be in his bad books! She'd just have to try harder to convince him otherwise then. A challenge. Right, this would just be a challenge. Nothing different from any of her other conquests.  
  
Convincing herself with this monologue, she sputtered out a quick, "Fine. And please, just call me Angela." Carlie grinned at her. For some kid who pretended she was fifteen years old and carried a weapon (she had informed her at one point that it was a morningstar, not a mace - like Angela cared about such unrefined weapons), she appeared to have clued on to Angela's thought pattern disturbingly quickly. The Princess couldn't wait to get rid of the conniving little urchin.  
  
"Whatever. You'd better come to the inn before you try to see the High Priest too; you look terrible."  
  
Oh, this was really becoming the world's quickest-made disaster. Duran was going to single-handedly destroy her reputation as the resistless seductress. She'd gone from pretty to terrible in less than a day. Was there a record for such things?  
  
"Yeah, fine," she murmured, for the lack of a better response. The Fairy, who was sitting on top of Duran's head where she belonged, for a change (whenever a fight broke out she'd disappear in either his or Angela's for safety, much to the violet-haired girl's annoyance), gave her a sympathetic look. Okay, NOW she had reached an all-time low in her career. She was getting sympathy from a magical insect of all things!  
  
Carlie enthusiastically led them to the only inn in town, where they proceeded to fork over what little money they had left to the innkeeper, who enthusiastically informed them that meals were included in the price. At least he wasn't as stingy as the vigilant innkeeper in Astoria.  
  
The first thing Angela enjoyed, though, was treating herself to a nice hot bath - if she didn't have to share the bath-house with a hyperactive little tyke and the Fairy, who wound up being too embarrassed to stay with Duran when he was bathing and decided to use Angela's head as her secondary sanctuary once again. This mightn't have been too bad, given that the Princess wasn't exactly known for her modesty, if the dang Fairy would stop talking to her telepathically.  
  
'You should be nicer to the kid. I bet she doesn't even have a mother.'  
  
'Big deal, I don't have a father, and do you see me complaining?' Angela mentally snapped back, stoically ignoring Carlie who was nearby looking irresistibly cute playing with bubbles. Other than the mental chatter, which no one else could hear anyway, the girls' bath house was uncomfortably silent; not that it seemed to bother Carlie at all.  
  
'You're so cold.'  
  
'If you want to keep hiding out in my head you can stop lecturing me!'  
  
'But then I wouldn't be able to tell you that someone is about to enter the room.'  
  
'WHAT?'  
  
"Anyone using this room?" A cheerful and disturbingly familiar voice echoed into the bath house mere moments before Hawk walked into the room.  
  
Every male knows this rule - never walk in on a naked and short-tempered Princess. Or a morningstar-wielding High Priest's granddaughter, either.  
  
"KYAAAAA! PERVERT!" Angela shrieked, leaping out of the bath and throwing her staff javelin-like at the surprised thief.  
  
"CARLIE HURTS BAD PEEPING MAN!" The young girl yelled in tandem, swinging her deadly ball and chain at the Navarrian with an uncanny precision.  
  
Somehow, Hawk managed to evade both attacks, casually walking back out of the room without batting an eyelid. "Sorry, I guess I got the wrong room. See you later, Angie!"  
  
The door closed again, the two females glaring at it. "What a jerk! He probably did it on purpose! Stalker!"  
  
"Carlie will go get Duran and get friend Duran to beat the bad man up for us!" Carlie proclaimed happily.  
  
"Eeeek, no!" Angela cried out, running and grabbing the girl before she could leave. "He's having a bath on his own! You don't want to walk in on him!"  
  
'I bet you do,' the Fairy muttered from inside her head.  
  
'Shut up or find a new head,' Angela retorted. Out loud, she said, "You don't go walking in on even friends in the bath, okay? Hawk's just a pervert."  
  
'Eh? You know him, Angela?' The Fairy asked.  
  
'Unfortunately. I will be re-introducing him to my staff as soon as I'm dressed.'  
  
'You mean the one impaled in the door?'  
  
Carlie was staring at her with those big, sickeningly sweet blue eyes. "Slutty girl? What's wrong?"  
  
Angela clenched her fist together at her apparent new nickname - it was more irritating to see the damage her cane had suffered, though; perhaps it was even a good thing she had missed Hawk, otherwise she might have killed the poor bastard. "Oh no, now it's ruined!" It had cracked up the center, interestingly right where she had blocked Carlie's weapon with it, and the next serious hit it sustained it would probably shatter completely. Not to mention it was embedded in the door. How the HELL had Hawk dodged that? As well as the demonic little girl's morningstar?  
  
That was going to be one very sorry thief. Angela yanked on her still slightly damp dress hurriedly, tried to dislodge her staff from the door, failed, then opted for just grabbing Carlie's beloved ball and chain and storming out after Hawk. Carlie came running after her, yelling for the 'slutty girl to give Carlie's friend back'!  
  
It didn't take long to locate the thief - he was lying on one of the beds in the inn leisurely. At first the Princess thought he was asleep, but that illusion was quickly shattered when he opened one amber eye to appraise the angry morningstar-wielding girl in front of him. "Angie. Good to see you again. You made it out of Astoria okay, I see."  
  
"YOU ARE SO GOING TO DIE!" She yelled, and tried to swing Carlie's ball and chain at him, but underestimating the weight of the weapon she misjudged and simply wound up toppling backwards in an undignified heap. Well, that was just embarrassing. Carlie stomped over and yanked her beloved weapon out of the Princess's hands.  
  
"Serves your right for stealing Carlie's weapon!"  
  
"There is no justice," Angela sighed, sitting back up. Remembering her purpose, she turned her glare back upon Hawk. "Just what are YOU doing here?"  
  
"You already knew I was coming to Wendel, why are you so surprised?" Hawk replied, quirky smile ever-present on his face.  
  
"Yeah well, what was WITH that Astoria? Did you KNOW that the Beastmen were going to attack there?" she accused.  
  
The thief under suspicion simply shrugged, swinging his legs over the side of the bed to sit up. "Even thieves such as myself who are expelled from the Thieves' Guild still have quite the underground network. I didn't know anything for sure, it was just a hunch. Sorry to hear that I'm right."  
  
"Yeah right," Angela snorted derisively.  
  
"Is the bath-house free now?" he asked innocently, ignoring her implied comment.  
  
Glaring was getting old by now - she settled for sticking her nose into the air to snub him. "You're such a pervert. You must really be desperate for a girlfriend if you've resorted to spying on a young woman's virgin nakedness while she bathes!"  
  
"You, a virgin? I doubt that," Hawk laughed, standing and making his way to the bath house.  
  
'I think I like this Hawk character,' the Fairy snickered from inside her head.  
  
"I- I- HEY, you can't go in there! That's the girls' room!" This guy really was a weirdo. She made a mental pact to avoid all ladies' men, thieves, and in general just people from the desert. No wonder Hawk had been expelled from the Thieves' Guild. He probably gave them all a bad reputation.  
  
"Yeah, but no one else is going to be using it now and the other bath house is occupied!" he called back. He must have been referring to Duran. The thought brought a brief blush to her face before she hurriedly got back on track - knowing that darn Fairy she was probably sitting in there spying on her thoughts. It was odd, though, the thief didn't strike her as the modest type.  
  
"Stalker!" she yelled after him one last time before giving up as the bath house door closed behind him. Sighing, she stood up and followed Carlie into the dining room for dinner. Suddenly, now that Hawk had returned, the little kid didn't seem quite so irritating anymore. She stoically settled herself in for a long talk as the 'slutty girl'. There was no justice in this world anymore. 


	7. All High Priests are Old, Senile, and Ha...

Disclaimer: I don't own Squaresoft or anything by it! There we go, one big happy banner to take care of everything. Disclaimers get painful after a while, as I'm sure you all already know. In fact, everyone's probably sick of reading them, too.  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. For a little piece of wisdom warning, I warn you against the hazards of tree-chopping. My neighbour cut down a big tree the other day, and it fell on their car. Shucks, and here I was thinking this kind of thing only ever happened on T.V.  
  
Author's note: Sorry it took so long to update this time around, would you believe that I was actually in the middle of uploading this chapter when FF.net crashed? Conspiriatical, I know. A lot of other people were probably inconvenienced by it too. Though it did leave me feeling guilty, though, as if I were somehow responsible. I touch a computer, it falls to pieces. (Granted, that was a terribly old and ill-kept computer.)  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Wow, Rosa-Aquafire almost single-handedly doubled the amount of reviews! (I can't do math anymore).  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Unfortunately I cannot reply to all of your reviews individually so I will just give you one big reply here (thanks very much - you didn't seriously have to go to all the trouble of reviewing every chapter!) Fair enough about the favouritism of the Hawk/Riesz coupling, it's among my favourites as well, I'm actually preparing a fic with that at the moment (don't hurt me, Laine). I'm glad if I surprised you by making Duran the fairy-carrier instead of Angela - not only did it suit my story, but nearly every story has the main character being the fairy carrier and that's just getting old (except, of course, 'Those Not Chosen by the Fairy'). Though technically in this, everyone carries the fairy around for a while.... I completely butcher the storyline. Oh well. Thank you for your constructive criticism, I hadn't noticed I had been using that many anime expressions - My other fanfic I've been working on is about an anime so bits and pieces of that must filter through. I'll try to watch out for it from now on - though I'm not sure if I'm getting rid of chibi-Angela, I'm awfully fond of the little voice inside the head, and that's a Japanese term similar meaning 'mini', as everyone probably already knows. That's my Japanese influence coming through as well. (Laughs) Thanks for the enthusiastic praise, and even more for all the reviews. You rock!  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Omg, someone thinks I am smart! This is a problem, since usually I like to pretend I am stupid so people will underestimate me. Don't worry, the couple will not be Koren/Angela, especially given that in just about every chapter Angela and or Duran says something about how much they want to kill him. Koren is alllllll yours. (back away slowly......) Thanks for a review from the well-acclaimed SD3 humour- writer! Here, the reviewers' opinions count for something, they really do (reviewers: sh-yeah, right.)  
  
Cookie Pixie: FF.net is being mean at the mo, isn't it? Thanks for dropping a line, and maybe I'll have to borrow some anime off you now that my collection seems to have gone missing.... your review dulls the pain. Ta muchly.  
  
That seems to be everyone (I pretend that I get so many reviews.... well, Rosa-Aquafire made me not pretend for once, thank you Rosa!) so thank you for reading, hope you enjoy this chapter, and please don't forget to review!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 7 - All High Priests are Old, Senile and Have Bushy Eyebrows  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The party of four and a half - Angela refused to count the Fairy as a proper member of any travelling group - stood outside the High Priest's temple.  
  
"This is your home, isn't it, Carlie?" Duran asked kindly. "Are you ready to go home now?"  
  
The kid had been acting suspicious all morning. It had been pretty much Angela who had dragged the urchin along with them when Carlie had almost convinced Duran to play games with her all day instead. "Carlie....," she warned.  
  
She half expected the little girl to burst out crying again, a ploy which had been used several times already, but instead, the girl turned and began to run away. "Carlie don't wanna go! Carlie will wait outside for slutty girl and nice man!"  
  
"Hey, you, wait-!" Angela started after the kid, then tripped and fell. She glared at Hawk, who still had his foot stuck out casually and was grinning at her. "Sadistic bastard," she muttered under her breath. He seemed to enjoy tormenting her.  
  
"Let her go, Princess Angela," Duran said. "Let Carlie do what she wants. She can take care of herself. Chances are we'll see her again."  
  
'This is from the person who's been her bodyguard for the last day and a half,' Angela thought to herself. "Whatever, that's fine, by why does HE have to come along?" she scoffed at Hawk, who raised an eyebrow at her.  
  
"What, do my good looks distract you from your mission?"  
  
"No, but there's probably an ego limit on a holy place like this and you fill the quota for all three of us!" Angela retorted.  
  
"That's fine, Angie, you can just bend over and the guards at the door will forget about such things." Hawk grinned.  
  
"You pervert! Don't you dare say such things!"  
  
"Ahem," the Fairy coughed, exiting from Duran's head. Hawk stepped back in surprise.  
  
"Duran, um, did that thing just come from your head?"  
  
Duran blinked and looked at Hawk, and then at the Fairy. "Well, yeah."  
  
"And....," Hawk prodded.  
  
"And what?"  
  
Sighing, the Fairy decided to introduce herself. "I'm the Fairy, emissary of the Mana Goddess. I chose Duran to be the Mana Knight, but since I'm a bit low on power I have to use his head as a vessel for a while. I'm linked to his thoughts as it is."  
  
"Hey, you didn't tell me that!" Duran protested, but no one bothered replying.  
  
"Really? Well, I'm a bit lacking of the proper etiquette for meeting someone from the Mana Holyland, sorry," Hawk said apologetically.  
  
"You mean you're a bit lacking when it comes to etiquette to do with ANYTHING," Angela muttered.  
  
"That's fine," The Fairy said cheerfully. "Nice to meet you, Hawk."  
  
"What, you aren't going to try and flirt with her?" Angela jibed.  
  
Hawk turned a pair of bemused amber eyes on her. "Why do that when I have someone as lovely as you hanging around?"  
  
Angela stood there, trying to figure out whether that was sarcasm, another infamous pick-up line from the ladies-man wanna-be, or a sincere comment. She settled for sarcasm, but was immensely disappointed when she realised she couldn't express her indignation properly given her current lack of any sort of weapon. Again, she'd just have to put up with glaring. At this rate her eyeballs would be drying up and falling out of their sockets.  
  
"Enough of this," the Fairy said impatiently "Since it's clear that Carlie isn't coming with us and now we've made it through all the introductions, shouldn't we be getting on with seeing the High Priest? You all are interested in what he has to say, aren't you?"  
  
After the past couple of days, that was certainly easy to forget. "Yeah, of course. Come on, Duran, since you're the Mana Knight, you should really go first," Angela prodded. She was hoping the sensation of leadership might appeal to him - and the beaming look he gave her suggested it did. Now that Carlie was gone she might be able to get back in his good books again.  
  
It was fairly straight forward to find the way to the Priest's altar, though Duran nearly did get them lost a couple of times before Hawk finally took the lead and led them the rest of the way. When they did get there, it wasn't quite what she expected.  
  
Okay, now she expected the High Priest of anything to be old, just not so..... decreipit. THIS was the old geezer than had put up that magic barrier that had frustrated her for hours?  
  
Duran bowed low - being a Knight, Angela figured that unlike Hawk and herself, he was the best at knowing how to respect someone. Angela was a Princess, she didn't have to show anyone respect other than her mother - and she had lost a lot of respect for her recently as it was. Hawk, she didn't think he even knew the meaning of the word respect. It wasn't part of the vocabularly most thieves indulged in.  
  
"High Priest of Wendel, we have travelled a long way to seek your advice," Duran said. "Please, can you tell me how to-"  
  
"Hmmm, I sense the power of the Goddess of Mana within you three....," the High Priest interrupted.  
  
Angela fought to curb her frustration. Rude old man, interrupting Duran like that when he had such an important question.  
  
The Fairy seemed to think that this was her cue - she popped back into existence out of Duran's head. "That would be because of me."  
  
The old man seemed to open his eyes properly from underneath those bushy eyebrows for the first time, blinked, then closed them again in meditation. "I see.... so the Fairies have left the Mana Holyland in search of the Mana Knight. And you've chosen this young man and his companions to be the champions of Mana. These are dire times indeed."  
  
Angela leaned over to whisper in Hawk's ear. "Did you agree to anything about being Mana's champion?"  
  
"Of course not. I only met this Fairy about ten minutes ago."  
  
The Fairy coughed, and the two quickly shut up. Now they were acting like reprimanded school children? This Fairy didn't know how to treat a Princess! She could do whatever she liked to Hawk, but royalty deserved more respect than to be shushed! She'd be having words with the tiny little deity later.  
  
Duran seemed to have ignored most of what the High Priest had to say, and continued on regardless, "Please, High Priest, I came to seek your advice on how to become strong enough to defeat the Scarlet Wizard."  
  
"Hmmm," the old man said, drawing his eyebrows together. Wow, those were thick eyebrows. Angela was having a tough time keeping her eyes off them. They were both revolting and intriguing at the same time. Did all High Priests have such thick eyebrows? "What about your companions? What advice do they seek?"  
  
"High Priest," Angela said, taking her cue and stepping up, still not taking her eyes off those thick eyebrows. "I wish to learn magic so I can return to the Kingdom of Altena."  
  
"Interesting," he murmured, then turned his lidded gaze on to Hawk. "And you, young sir?"  
  
Angela almost guffawed. Even Hawk looked a little perplexed. How often would a thief get called sir?  
  
"High Priest, I seek the cure to a curse a friend of mine has been put under," Hawk proceed to outline the details of the curse. The High Priest nodded and took it all in.  
  
Finally, he spoke. "I am afraid I personally cannot make you stronger or teach you magic."  
  
"What?" Angela fumed, just about ready to lose her temper. "I came all this way for nothing? You're meant to be the High Priest of Wendel! But all you are is a stinking fraud!" Her patience had been running thin the past few days as it was, and now that she was here she was being told all the effort she'd gone to had been useless? That couldn't be! Duran was looking similarly pissed off, though managed to hide it a bit better.  
  
"Shhh," the Fairy said. Angela was just about to use her cane to whack the little insect across the room. Wait, she didn't have a cane at the moment, did she? Damn Hawk!  
  
"-However," the High Priest continued, completely ignoring her outburst, "There is a process called class-changing. You need to get a lot of practice and improve yourself before you can even try it. You need a Mana Stone to do it too - it will make you stronger, Duran."  
  
"I never told you my name," Duran said, blinking to himself, before shrugging it off.  
  
"As for you, Angela," he continued. The Princess in question shot a dirty look at the Fairy - the little snitch had probably used her little mental tricks to tell the old man their entire life stories. "You could perhaps seek out the Elemental spirits that guard the Mana stones - if you help them out, they may or may not grant you the power of their magic."  
  
"More travelling?" She supposed it was better than the alternative of having come all this way for nothing, but now she had to go on some quest for the spirits. Well, Jose had always said that learning magic wouldn't be easy.  
  
"Try to contain your excitement," Hawk muttered.  
  
"And you, young Hawk," the High Priest droned on, "I can do nothing to lift the curse." Angela almost - ALMOST - felt a wave of sympathy when she saw the crushed look flitter momentarily across the thief's face. The guy had obviously been through a lot for this, like her, and to be told there wasn't anything you could do had to be tough.  
  
"However," the old man continued again - did he EVER shut up? "Duran's quest will also involve getting the Mana Sword. To get the Mana Sword, you need to make it to the sanctuary, where you can awaken the Goddess of Mana. She has the power to grant each of your wishes should any other means fail to do so. She also will save the world."  
  
From what? Still, Hawk looked relieved that all wasn't lost yet. Duran, though, was still struggling to process these complex set of instructions he had been given - it wasn't enough to beat the Scarlet Wizard, now he was being given the opportunity to save the world! How could any self- respecting Knight resist? "How do we get into the sanctuary?"  
  
"If you get support for the element that protects each of the eight Mana Stones then you will be able to generate enough energy to open the door to the sanctuary. There's a Light Mana Stone in the Cave of Waterfalls. The Light Element Wisp is said to reside there. You should begin there."  
  
Well, even if he did sound a bit like a fraud, he knew enough for Angela to take him seriously.  
  
"Where are the others?" Duran pressed for more information.  
  
"You must first go meet Wisp, the Light Element. He is said to reside in the Cave of Waterfalls. But we haven't heard from him lately. He protects the Mana Stone of Light."  
  
Okay, he wasn't a fraud, but maybe he was senile. "You just said that more or less," Angela interjected.  
  
"Go find Wisp. He will help you on your quest."  
  
"Senile old man," she muttered under her breath.  
  
Hawk decided maybe it was time to butt in. "Maybe we should go. I think that's about all we're going to get out of him today."  
  
Angela was still muttering under her breath as Duran thanked the High Priest, who kept repeating himself about Wisp with the odd variation here and there - Angela could swear she heard some lewd comment about her clothing. No wonder Carlie was a disturbed little child. If she was under the care of that old geezer, she probably would be too. She took one last look at those hideous bushy eyebrows, then turned and followed the rest of them back out through the temple.  
  
The trio and a half wearily exited the temple, by now mid-afternoon. Well, more travelling certainly wasn't going to be fun, but at least, seeing as she and Duran apparently had the same goals now, she'd be seeing a lot more of him. It would be such a tradgedy to be separated again after fate so kindly threw them back together. She had no intention of wasting the opportunity.  
  
This thought in mind, she happily - and she was the one accusing the thief of rapid mood swings - began to drag Duran away. "Come on, let's hurry and get to the Cave of Waterfalls! Wisp won't wait forever, you know!"  
  
Duran was swept up in her enthusiam. "Okay! Let's go save the world! And beat that Red Wizard to a pulp while we're at it!"  
  
Hawk coughed behind them. Angela turned around in irritation. "What is it that you want now?"  
  
"Um, I hate to break this to you, but if we leave now we're going to be stuck sleeping in the Cave of Waterfalls, and furthermore, none of us have eaten today, as well as the fact that Angie doesn't have a weapon at the moment and there's surely going to be more zombies in the Caves....."  
  
The Fairy shimmered back into existence - she seemed to do it so much why did she even bother disappearing in the first place? "At last, someone sensible in this party. He's right. We should leave tomorrow morning, and spend this afternoon preparing ourselves."  
  
Well, the idea of another night spent in the inn was a nice idea, as was the prospect of a meal and new cane, but..... "Hey, I don't have any money left, and neither does Duran."  
  
"No problem." Hawk held up a couple of purses that couldn't possibly belong to him with a winning smile.  
  
Angela stared. "When and where did you get those?"  
  
Hawk shrugged. "I'm a thief, it's what I do."  
  
Suddenly, Hawk seemed to lose his newfound favour with the Fairy. "You're a THIEF? What makes you think I'd let a thief into the Mana Holyland?"  
  
Hawk dangled the moneybag. "What makes you think without me you'll even make it to the Mana Holyland?"  
  
"You egotistical moron! Duran and I could do just fine without you!" Angela jumped in, though was appalled to find herself on the same side of the Fairy. "Duran, what do you think?"  
  
Duran eyes were bright at the sight of heavy purses. "Alright! Way to go Hawk!" He gave him a hearty slap on the back, making the lithe thief wince.  
  
The Princess and the Fairy stared as the two men congratulated each other on their success and good fortune.  
  
Finally, the Fairy broke the silence. "Must be a guy thing."  
  
Angela was once again bemoaning her fate. "Must be." 


	8. A Princess with the Sympathy of an Undea...

Disclaimer: I own it! I own it all! Bwa ha hahahahahah! (Secondary author's note: We would like to apologise for the author. She is currently suffering from an unknown mental condition, and thus should be rendered immune to all legal charges originating from false claims of ownership. She doesn't own it. She doesn't own much of anything, really.)  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. And Flipper FLIES through the water! For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.  
  
(Just checking to see if you're all actually reading this big boring intro.)  
  
Author's note: I really am getting slack with these updates, aren't I? I would like to apologise profusely, I went to bed one night and I woke up the next morning and suddenly my life had turned into a cheesy day-time soap opera! I've been on crisis management ever since, hence the lack of updates and probably drop in quality of these chapters, I have some really good chapters already written (I should start writing things in order for a change, otherwise then it will be structured like Record of Lodoss War) but they're still a little ways off yet. Please be patient with me. Just so you know, this is kind of a filler chapter, and I'm not happy with it but I'd been procrastinating on updating enough as it is so maybe it'll give some people some chuckles or something. Hopefully things will all sort themselves out soon and I'll be able to really start getting along with the story and having some fun, but I beg of you to be patient with me until then.  
  
After all that jargon, here's some more! Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Laine: Heh heh, that was my favourite line too. Now that Hawk's joined the party maybe I'll be able to get to the underlying plot of this (eventually. I take a long time to do things in my fics - the Kenshin fanfic I'm also currently posting is getting everyone upset because I've been building suspense for about six chapters now without anything happening. I'm going to be getting flames soon. T_T). Thank you very much for your review!  
  
Cookie Pixie: How did you know I have the entire series of Card Captor Sakura and Sailormoon? You must be psychic. Sorry if I'm not as funny in these couple of chapters, I have some HILARIOUS ones (well, my friend thinks so) coming up down the track, but there probably will be brief moments in this fic where I will be serious, since usually I do write more serious fics. I hope that promise is enough to keep everyone reading and reviewing. Sorry that Carlie isn't staying with or joining the party itself, I have other plans for her..... (That sounds weird. But rest assured, she still has a role to play throughout the general fic, her appearances don't stop here.) I admit I did have fun writing Carlie like that, so you never know, she might make more appearances than we think. Thank you for reviewing!  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: I agree with you soapbox thief defending, how can any thief survive being just Robin Hood? It's not practical! Plus, it gives me fodder to work with. I've been clutching at the creative straws recently, and I think these chapters are suffering for it. Thank you very much for your generous approval, I love hearing from you! Thank you for review!  
  
Wingnut: I am still trying to figure out whether A. There are three (or maybe four) of you on the net at once, B. You are insane and are hosting several personalities within the one head, or C. You are hilarious. Thanks very much for your review! We've met a new reviewer everyone! This calls for a party!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 8 - A Princess With the Sympathy of an Undead Zombie  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
"I can't believe I have to go back in there AGAIN," Angela moaned as the travelling party made their way to the Cave of Waterfalls.  
  
"Stop your whining, Angie, a big girl like you ought to be able to hack it," Hawk said.  
  
"Why you- you-!" The Princess raised her nice, shiny new staff to whack the annoying thief hopefully out cold, but he caught it before it could connect.  
  
"Now, now," he scolded, wagging a finger at her. "You shouldn't be hitting me with a staff that I paid for."  
  
"WITH STOLEN MONEY!"  
  
"I earned it! It's not as easy to pick pockets as people think, you know!"  
  
"Hey, it's Carlie!" Duran shouted from the head of the group.  
  
Oh great. As if this day could get any worse, now she had the little ingrate to contend with.  
  
Carlie was waving enthusiastically, even hopping up and down at the sight of them. Even better, Carlie on sugar. Maybe she was still asleep and having a nightmare. If that were so, now would be about the time to wake up.  
  
"Friend Duran! Slutty girl! Pervert man! Carlie is happy to see you!"  
  
"If only the feeling were mutual," Angela muttered under her breath.  
  
"Pervert man?" Hawk asked incredulously. The Princess barely managed to stifle her laughter. That was a new one on everybody, though quite frankly, she was amazed he'd never been called that before.  
  
"Carlie want to go find Heath! Carlie go with you!" she insisted.  
  
"Let me think about that for a min- NO!" Angela said.  
  
"I think we should let her!" Duran protested almost immediately. The Fairy, no doubt excited at another argument - Angela guessed after being with the same three other Fairies in the Mana Holyland for so long all this other-people interactivity was reasonabily spectacular - left Duran's head again to observe it all. Duran continued on regardless. "We should protect her and help her on her quest like any self-respecting Knight would!"  
  
"Isn't it also the responsibility of any self-respecting Knight to not intentionally put any child in harm's way, though?!" Angela argued, utilising her court lessons to make her more logical than she was usually. She hated having to get into an argument with her soon-to-be-she-hoped- lover but there was simply NO WAY that she could put up with Carlie tagging along on what was starting to look like a really long journey.  
  
The little girl was glaring at her again. "Carlie already told you Carlie is fifteen years old! You stop calling Carlie a kid or Carlie will re- introduce you to Carlie's friend!" She held up her morningstar threateningly.  
  
Angela recoiled, not wanting to break another staff trying to block that weapon. "You're psychotic!"  
  
"Say Carlie can come!"  
  
"We should really let her, what harm could it do?" Duran continued.  
  
"I am NOT going to drag some ki-" Angela paused when she saw the murderous gleam in those insufferably cute blue eyes, and amended her sentence, "Some nice young innocent fifteen-year-old on what will probably be a pretty dangerous quest that'll take her a long, long way from home! It makes more sense this way!"  
  
The Fairy decided to pitch in, "Not to mention the legend specifically says only THREE people are supposed to enter the Mana Holyland to meet the Goddess legitimately."  
  
Angela shot the Fairy an irritated glance. "What the hell are you talking about now?"  
  
Duran was insistent, however, much to the Princess's annoyance. "Carlie can't possibly do it on her own! It's our civil obligation to help her!"  
  
Hawk sighed, then quick as a flash, produced a satchel and threw some powder into Carlie's face. The little girl sneezed, then the expected rages start. "Why did pervert man do that? Carlie will hurt bad man! Meet Carlie's friend!"  
  
Just as Angela was considering whether or not it was her duty to protect Hawk from the demonic little girl's morningstar, the decision was saved from her as mid-swing, Carlie started to get sleepy, dropping her precious weapon. "Ugh.... Carlie feel like taking a nap now....."  
  
Then a moment later, she collapsed onto the ground, snoring lightly. It seemed weird that a child should snore, but it wasn't any of their business. Beating up Hawk seemed like more fun than pondering the meaning of the High Priest's Granddaughter's existence.  
  
Angela was the first to get in. "What did you do?"  
  
Hawk shrugged. "Sleeping powder."  
  
Duran was next. "What for?"  
  
"Because we didn't want her to follow us, right? Even you were about to agree that she had to stay behind, Duran, after all, your quest to save the world does sort of take precedence over the safety of a single child. Also the Fairy, for whatever reason, insists that only three of us can go to the Mana Holyland, and Angela's just a bitchy girl who wants to keep you all to herself," Hawk explained rationally.  
  
"Ack!" Angela was torn whether or not to be immensely embarrassed that Hawk had just implied how much she liked Duran aloud or angry that he had. Fortunately for her, Duran completely missed the obvious statement. Liking someone with a fairly low intelligence level apparently had its ups as well as downs.  
  
The Knight scratched his head in thought. "Hmmm, I suppose you're right."  
  
The Fairy looked like she wanted to agree, but her sense of righteousness preventing her from admitting she agreed with a thief. "Was it really necessary to knock her out?"  
  
The thief began to lead the way, obviously becoming bored with all the questions. "If I hadn't, we'd either have wasted the entire day arguing or we'd have gone on ahead and she would have followed us anyway. Now can we get going? I'd like to get the curse lifted before Jessica dies!"  
  
The others, subsequently satisfied by this rational explanation, followed, Angela trying to hide her relief at not having Carlie along for the ride. "Who is this Jessica girl to you, anyhow?" Wait a minute, why did she even care? Oh well, too late to retract the question now.  
  
"My best friend's sister. I promised him before he died that I'd protect her."  
  
"Not doing too good a job, are you?" she snorted.  
  
'You have the sensitivity of a brick, Angela,' the Fairy spoke from somewhere inside her head.  
  
'HEY! Aren't you supposed to be in Duran's head at the moment?!' Angela mentally hissed back.  
  
'Things were too boring inside of his head. Not much was happening.'  
  
'Go visit Hawk then if you feel so sorry for him!'  
  
'Me? Converse with a thief? I think not!'  
  
Angela realised that Hawk hadn't responded to her jab, and she felt a momentary wave of guilt. As annoying as she found the thief, she hadn't meant to intentionally hurt his feelings. Well, not too badly, anyway.  
  
Duran was still seemingly impressed with the sleeping powder, despite his previous insistence on protecting Carlie. "Hawk, what other cool stuff do you have?"  
  
Hawk grinned. "You wouldn't believe. I'll show you some of them sometime."  
  
Duran was just about to ask another question, but Angela decided that this would be as good as time as any to break up the male bonding session - that is, before it started. "Um, excuse me?"  
  
"What is it, Princess?" Duran asked her. Angela quickly reigned in her temper at the fact he was still calling her Princess half the time - she couldn't be going flying off the handle at Duran, after all, that wouldn't help the already suffering relationship (that hadn't actually reached any sort of fruition yet, but that was minor detail) in the slightest. Instead, she coughed, and pointed.  
  
"It appears," the Fairy announced, rising up and sitting on top of Angela's head, "That we are surrounded by zombies."  
  
Hawk stretched lazily and yawned. "And we only just got here, too. What a lousy reception committee."  
  
Duran unsheated his sword as the moaning dead began to close in on them. Angela raised her staff, and glared at Hawk. After making that case about not bringing any dependents along, why was he still here? Did he expect Duran and her to save his sorry hide? Well, Duran might have been noble enough but she would have left him behind to the wolves at Jad if she'd had the chance.  
  
"Kyaaaa!" Angela yelled, thwacking the nearest zombie on the head with her cane. Oh, she liked this staff a lot - their heads practically exploded with the impact. Normally she wasn't too fond of gore, but envisioning Carlie or Koren or Hawk or one of the many other irritating people she'd dealt with recently on their decomposing faces help mask her nausea. She'd have to be careful about using this on real people, though, they might start getting seriously injured.  
  
Duran was swinging his sword around most dramatically, doing his fair share of damage as well. "There's heaps of them!"  
  
Angela has just finished off the most threatening to her, and whirled around to seek our her next opponent. "Hawk! Behind you!"  
  
The thief's reaction time was impressive. Whirling, suddenly he dismembered the monster with two short swords, moving on to the next two with an uncanny speed and precision. Angela was left open-mouthed. That incompetant could actually fight? He was mightn't have been attacking with the same power as Duran, but his skill and speed was incredible!  
  
There was a brief silence once the ambush of undead had been sent back to the underworld. It sure was messy now.  
  
'Don't worry,' the Fairy said confidently inside her head. That was so annoying, she wasn't the Mana Knight, she ought to be wasting Duran's time instead of hers. 'The cleaning fairies will be along in no time fix things up.'  
  
'Whilst it's a nice idea, I'm going to assume you're joking.' Verbally, she said, "Hawk? What are those? And furthermore, where did you get them from?"  
  
Hawk grinned, holding a hand to the back of his head, embarrassed. "Oh, these? Kodachi. Short swords very popular amongst ninja. I've always had them."  
  
"Riiiiiight," Angela said, not quite sure if she believed him. As if to prove his point, though, Hawk slid the two short swords back up his sleeves with a practised ease and speed, and it was as though he were completely unarmed again. Angela and the Fairy were left blinking (though the Fairy was of course hiding in Angela's head so no one could really know for sure), and Duran was just impressed.  
  
"Hawk, that is so cool!"  
  
'He's right, it is pretty cool,' the Fairy commented.  
  
'Did I ask your opinion?' Angela shot back. She was still having difficulty dealing with the concept that the lazy womaniser from the desert who couldn't even take a gentle hit from Riesz's lance could fight like that.  
  
Well, there went her hopes of him being killed in battle, leaving her with Duran's shoulder to cry on. It was starting to look like she was never going to be rid of the irritating Navarrian now. Angela was quickly becoming convinced that the fates were against her and Duran's union. 


	9. My God That Thing Is Ugly

Disclaimer: I don't own it. But I do love it. And because I love it, I didn't want to scare it away by being possessive. Or something.  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. You know the drill by now (I insistently repeat, though, this is not a drill. This is real.) Again, nothing terribly special to warn about in this chapter other than some brief language and violence.  
  
Author's note: I just want you all to know that I have to go out of town to take care of some business for a few days, so I'll be unable to update for a brief period. I don't know how long this will be yet, but just so people don't start thinking I'm dead or anything. I'd also like to thank the reviewers again, we reached a record for the number of reviews for any chapter! (Though assisted by Wingnut pressing the send button twice. Thank you, Wingnut.)  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Thanks very much for the praise and the review! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.  
  
Wingnut: It's a tragic thing when some of the reviews are actually funnier than the story itself. LOL. Thanks for dropping a line, um, all of you.  
  
Robert Commiston: Hello, haven't seen you before! Welcome to this humble story. Don't let lack of response get you down, it's important to persevere - I have and was rewarded with the great response to this story! Thank you for your review.  
  
Cookie Pixie: I'm not sure if technically Hawk uses kodachi, but they seemed more likely than a pair of kitchen knives. I prefer it that way, anyway. I'm glad you're still reading, thank you for the review!  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Glad if you got a laugh. It means this story actaully IS accurately categorised as a comedy - here and there anyway. I agree that battle scenes can be difficult to write, but I've had a lot of practice so if that practice has in your opinion paid off I'm immensely happy. You don't want Hawk to be a ninja? Hmm, well, I wasn't really going to actually change personalities very much after class changes, but to be fair (though they're not trundling along for another couple of chappies at least) I'll call on everyone to take a vote - which class change do you want the three main characters wind up in? I'll probably post the question in the next Author's note as well. BTW, Rosa, no multiple voting for Rogue under various aliases. (Grins.) Thanks for the review, as always.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 9 - My God That Thing Is Ugly  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Angela was getting really, really sick of the Cave of Waterfalls. Not only was it dark and musty and filled with animal droppings and zombie remains, but it stank. Even the waterfall stank. There must have been an algae problem in the river or something.  
  
So it was rather distressing the situation they were in now. After cutting out a long and monotonous lot of fighting that involved mostly Duran trying to show off his sword skills as much as possible, Angela trying out her nice new fancy cane (mostly on Hawk's head though the thief was notoriously hard to hit) and Hawk generally impressing them all with battle skills they didn't know he'd had, they eventually arrived at a dead end. Right in front a whopping big waterfall. Would have been another nice romantic destination at another point in time, probably, if it wasn't for the horrible smell and Duran's insistance on missing all of her cues.  
  
'Where's your cleaning fairies now?' Angela muttered to the Fairy.  
  
'I thought you'd be more concerned about getting over this giant gap of nothing,' the Fairy retorted. She had maintained throughout all their havoc that the cleaning fairies would make everything better once they were gone. The Princess was convinced that the Fairy had spent far too much time around Astoria. There was something about that floating light and the Fairy, though, that made her wonder..... no, that was too much like logic. Just concentrate on her mission of getting Duran - oh, and learning magic whilst saving the world would be a good idea too.  
  
Hawk looked over, and seemed to notice her concentration. "Angie, stop talking to the Fairy and help us to figure out some way across!"  
  
The Fairy decided to abadon her pointless argument with the Princess and shimmered out into existence, hovering over the abyss, going up and down the waterfall and back.  
  
Angela tapped her foot impatiently. "Have you finished showing off now? We all know that YOU can get across no problem, but in case you haven't noticed, we don't have wings."  
  
The miniature deity sent her a dirty look. "I was just trying to figure out a way across. I was figuring that I could use the natural energies of the waterfall to lift you across."  
  
Duran looked impressed. "You can do that?"  
  
She shrugged her tiny shoulders. "Only one way to try."  
  
"Wait a minute," Angela said, panicking. "We're a long way up! I'd like a little more assurance than that!"  
  
Hawk was grinning, never a good sign. She realised why, when, quick as a flash, he grabbed one of her arms, and motioned for Duran to grab the other. Not that she minded Duran holding on to her arm, but she had a horrible premonition of what was about to happen. The thief called up to the Fairy, "Okay, Fairy, we're ready to go!"  
  
Angela shrieked. "Eeeeek! No!"  
  
It was similar to being caught in a tornado, but beyond that, all any of them could really relate was that it was creepy and that they had made it from one side to the next in the matter of half a second or so.  
  
Once everyone caught their breaths, the Fairy vanished into Duran's head once again, and Angela brandished her cane, ready for action. "Okay, let's get going! I sense powerful magic nearby!"  
  
Raising an eyebrow at her, Hawk commented, "I didn't think you could use magic."  
  
"Just because I can't use it doesn't mean I can't sense it! Just shut up and follow me! I mean, let's follow Duran!"  
  
Duran, once again flattered by his position of leadership, strode confidently to the next cave. Of course, the only reason they let him lead was because there was nowhere else they could go. Even if, in the middle of a network of caves, trying to get somewhere required mostly luck, Duran didn't even seem to have much of that.  
  
His shout brought them running sooner than intended.  
  
"AHHHHHH!"  
  
Angela and Hawk came running after him. Angela was the first to rush to her beloved's side. "What is it?!"  
  
The Knight simply pointed. "THAT - THING - IS - UGLY!"  
  
Angela looked, and she had to agree. Yes, that thing was quite ugly.  
  
Hawk brandished his two kodachi - again, produced from thin air. "I think we should put it out of its misery."  
  
The giant spider-cross-crustacean thing suddenly shifted, and turned its truly freaky large-eyed gaze upon the three intruders (the Fairy had the good sense to hide again). Suddenly, it began stomping its feet, or what passed as its feet, and growled at them.  
  
"I think maybe it wants to put US out of OUR misery," Angela observed.  
  
Duran drew his sword. "No creature as ugly as this should be allowed to exist in this beautiful world!"  
  
"With an armour on it like that, we should go for the eyes," Hawk murmured. "Duran, you come in from the right and I'll come from the left."  
  
"What am I supposed to do?" Angela demanded. Typical males, stealing all of the glory.  
  
The thief turned and winked at her. "The big ugly monsters always go right after the pretty girl. You can distract it for us."  
  
"WHAT? DISTRACT IT?!"  
  
Duran raised his blade. "Get ready! It's attacking!"  
  
Well, it was sort of attacking. It was moving pretty slow, though, the thing was so large all it could really do was jump up and down in place and try and hit them with its spidery legs. It truly was a pathetic creature. It probably only survived for so long because its sheer ugliness scared every other living thing away. As it was, the Princess was certain she was going to be having nightmares about this.  
  
Still, if that was all its attacking power, this would be easy. Hawk and Duran quickly moved into position, dodging the treacherous legs. The thing's eyes suddenly focused on Angela, and what any self-respecting magician instantly recognised as 'beams of light things' came shooting out at her.  
  
"Ack!" The Princess shrieked, surprised, leaping away so it wouldn't singe her shoes. "That thing has magic! How could something so ugly and therefore stupid have magic?!"  
  
No one seemed too interested in answering what she thought was quite an intelligent question, but apparently her job at distracting the monstrosity was a success because Duran and Hawk ran in at the same time and attacked. Duran plunged his sword deep into the right eye, and the creature gave an ear-splitting shriek of pain. On the other side, Hawk was having more trouble, dodging the flailing legs and trying to attack but not doing much damage.  
  
"Duran!" he called over. "My kodachi aren't long enough to pierce all the way through! Get over here with your sword!"  
  
Duran whipped his sword back out and tried to make his way to where Hawk was, but he spent far too much time backtracking away from the advancing and decidedly pissed off monster to even get any closer to the large left eye.  
  
Time to make herself useful. She started waving her arms and yelling in their direction. "HEY! You ugly! Look over here! Your mother was a pumpkin bomb!"  
  
She doubted that the creature actually understood what she was saying, but the noise and movement seemed to have momentarily taken its attention away from Duran. In that one moment of distraction, Duran leaped and plunged his sword deep into the left eye, up to the hilt. With an ear-splitting screech, and a lot of thumping, the creature collapsed. It felt like an earthquake - Angela was standing out in the open and she still had to shield herself from small pebbles raining from the ceiling. Hawk and Duran managed to back away before the creature's antics would up creating a landslide that buried it in rock. After all that, what they were left with was one very large, disgusting and downright ugly mess.  
  
After a long silence, Duran said, "I think it's dead."  
  
Angela agreed with that verdict, at least. "I really, really hope you weren't kidding about those cleaning fairies, Fairy."  
  
The Fairy, evidently deciding that things were safe now that the albeit short battle was over, left Duran's head again. "They'll certainly have their work cut out with this."  
  
Hawk, of course, was all business as usual - the Princess was quickly discovering that he could be just as fixated on a task as Duran, almost to the exclusion of everything else. "Where's Wisp and the Mana Stone at then?"  
  
It was almost as if the Elemental had been waiting for his cue. (Though no one really knew if it was a 'he' or 'she' since Elementals were pretty much gender in-specific.) Shimmering into existence and almost blinding them until their eyes adjusted, a being made entirely of light materialised before them. Angela felt that maybe dramatic music should have been playing or something at this point in time.  
  
"This, everyone," the Fairy announced proudly. "...Is Wisp."  
  
There was a brief pause among the three companions. Finally, Angela said, "Well, duh."  
  
The Elemental of Light apparently decided to ignore that comment. "Thank you so much for freeing me! That horrible ugly thing was keeping me trapped away!"  
  
"Yes, it was quite ugly," Duran agreed.  
  
"In gratitude to you, first let me heal your wounds," Wisp gushed on. His light grew even brighter, forcing them to squint.  
  
"I didn't think anyone was injured," Angela interrupted.  
  
The escalation of light stopped, then faded. Wisp seemed confused now. "Really? Oh, well then.... Fairy, what comes next?"  
  
Angela wasn't convinced by all of this, though. "Just a minute.... THAT thing was keeping the Elemental of Light locked up? I thought the Elementals were supposed to be incredibly powerful! The three of us wasted that with hardly any effort at all!"  
  
If it was at all possible for a spirit that didn't have much of a body to look hedgy, Wisp managed it. "Well, that's true....."  
  
The Fairy apparently decided this was as good as time as any to rescue her companion deity. "With Mana's power fading, so too does the power of the Elementals fade. That's why we must hurry and collect the blessings of all before they grow too weak. Wisp, what about the Mana Stone? I think the Beastmean might be after it."  
  
They were all at least slightly amazed by this revelation, though of course knew better than to show it. Well, Angela wasn't too sure whether Duran was even paying attention, but that was again beside the point. So THAT was why the Beastmen had decided to come invade Wendel. She knew there had to be a reason.  
  
"It's safe for now. It's in the Ruins of Light up above. We can't reach it from here, so I'm afraid you can't do your class change here, Duran," Wisp replied. Apparently the Fairy was going and telling other entities their entire life stories' by her weird mental-talking again. They'd have to have a long in-depth discussion about that later.  
  
Hawk finally found an opening in which to step up. "If you please, Wisp, I was wondering if your powers could lift a curse?"  
  
Wisp seemed to look at the Fairy, who muttered something under her breath. Turning back to the thief, the gentle Elemental responded, "I am sorry, Hawk, but only the Mana Goddess or the instigator can lift a curse like that. It's beyond my power at this point in time."  
  
Determined not to let his disappointment show, Hawk nodded resolutely. This, though, seemed to remind the likeable Elemental that there WAS someone who he could help. "You, however, Princess - I understand that you wish to learn magic?"  
  
Angela nodded vigorously, but forced herself not to let her hopes get too high. "Why?"  
  
If it was possible for a being of light to grin, then Wisp was grinning. "I, Wisp, Elemental of Light, bestow my powers of magic upon you, Angela."  
  
The violet-haired Princess of Altena felt herself being surrounded by a glowing aura, and simultaneously felt her magical awareness heighten to never-imagined levels to her previous ignorance. It was a bigger rush than sugar.  
  
"Alright! Let's try it!" Angela shouted with glee. She raised her staff, and called balls of light to pummel a nearby boulder. Ecstatic, she tried to call upon a water spell, but was disappointed when nothing came out.  
  
"Even though you may actually know the spells from learning them from books, you'll have to train your power to make your spells more powerful and to attempt some others. Also, until you meet some of the other Elementals, I'm afraid you'll only be able to use light spells," Wisp explained.  
  
"Oh. Who cares?! I can use magic now! Just you wait Koren!" she said, raising her staff into the air in triumph.  
  
Everyone seemed amused by her display, but for once she didn't really care. After the moment was past, Wisp continued talking to the Fairy. "You should probably go try and track down Gnome next - his Mana stone is in the most immediate peril. I think it's somewhere near Forcena. Please, hurry. My blessings will go with you."  
  
With that dramatic speech, Wisp disappeared once again into nothingness, but all of them could at least vaguely feel his presence with them. How very eerie.  
  
"I can't believe we did it!" Angela said, hugging Duran. What the hell, a celebration was a good excuse, she could get away with it.  
  
"Don't be getting excited yet, Angela," the Fairy interjected. "We still have a lot of work to do. This is just the first step along the way."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know, c'mon, let's hurry and get back to Wendel! I really want a bath!" Angela insisted, half-dragging Duran with her, Hawk following with that usual smirk on his face.  
  
They arrived back the gap to the waterfall, there being no complaints this time as the Fairy air-lifted/pushed them over. However, none of them expected to suddenly be confronted by a small horde of beastmen.  
  
"Oh, shit," the Princess stated.  
  
The one in the lead growled something indistinguishable to their ears. They were completely cornered, and the only thing to do when the beastmen rushed at them them was fall backwards. Fall backwards into a tall, long- way-down waterfall.  
  
They fell, and they fell - where was the Fairy and her magical little floating tricks now? - and they fell. They fell some more. Dang, it was going to hurt when they actaully landed.  
  
There was a splash of freezingly cold stinky water, then Angela knew nothing more.  
  
________________  
  
Yeah, I know ending a chapter at an unconsciousness is terribly cliche and maybe even a little cliff-hangerish (though we all know what's going to happen anyway), but that's all I have time for. Eeek! I have to go catch the train! Please don't forget to review everyone! 


	10. Escape from Jad and the Psychotic Child

Disclaimer: I just recently discovered that you don't need to have disclaimers every chapter! Apparently the first one in the first chapter was enough! This is probably good a thing, seeing as I was beginning to run out of creative ways of saying I didn't own it.  
  
WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. I can't even remember what the general warnings were anymore, but I'm sure they were good.  
  
Author's note: Terribly sorry to everyone about the length of time it took to update, but I'm back at last, with a nice long chapter to compensate and drive you all insane with hopefully. Though I will again have to apologise in advance - I returned home to discover I'm (actually, everyone in the building) being evicted in a few weeks to tear the place down. I mean, I knew I was living in a dump, but I didn't really think it warranted itself as a write-off. Thus, in the midst of packing and moving (again) I might not have time to write as much. I'll still be trying to update on a fairly regular basis, but I'm not making any promises for quick updates. Please try to be understanding. I want my bond back, dammit!  
  
Response to Reviewers! (A record number of reviews! For a chapter I was completely unsatisfied with too! Thanks everyone!):  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Thanks for the great review, and I'm glad to see you're still reading. Short but sweet, my favourite.  
  
Truewind: A lot of people don't agree with my portrayal of Duran, but I'm pleased you're so understanding about it. He'll probably change a bit throughout the story, anyway, for plot purposes. I also agree with your rebuttal (the Reviews have turned into a forum! That always excites me when that happens for some reason) but I should make it clear that I won't necessarily be changing appearances or necessarily attitudes with class changes, or at least, not intentionally (though my subconscious does like to haunt me. No, I will not jump off a bridge! Shut up, brain, you'll get us killed!) Anyhow, thanks for the review, as always.  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: I rushed the magic simply because I feel it's an area that's been visited far too much as it is, so I only skipped over it. I'll have to give that fic a squiz sometime. LOL - As if I didn't get your vote for Rogue to begin with. Please don't cry! People might vote differently! (Wrings hands desperately - we need a psychiatrist here!) Thanks for the opinions, I'll look into it (really, I will!), and as always, thanks for the review.  
  
Duran the Gladiator: Ack, you're still reading! Glad to see it! I'm surprised you'd be happy to see your favourite charcter as a moron, but hey, if you like it I'm not complaining.  
  
Cookie Pixie: Actually, I'm not sure if I made it clear but I will be taking votes on EVERYONE, not just Hawk for the final class changes. It'll probably be another couple of chapters before we get there anyway, so I'll probably put it in the next author's note or something. 'Pink Typhoon', yuck, the colour pink should be erased from the spectrum. Heh heh.  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: I seriously didn't think the fic was that funny, usually people don't get my sense of humour, but if you guys like it then hooray! I'll look into the battle scenes, I won't be writing out every battle scene in detail though, so I thought I'd keep them simple for the time being. I don't want the characters near death and coming up with some amazing way to defeat the monster at the last minute every time - though I could get sarcastic or satirical about it, I suppose (strokes chin thoughtfully.) I'll keep your ideas abot Koren's portrayal in mind. Thanks very much to one of my favourite psycho-authors.  
  
ChibiCharizard: A new reviewer! Hello, and welcome! I did warn you about Duran, so nobody can flame about it! A lot of people complain though, which is fair enough, I don't expect everyone to like everything. I haven't had the chance to do anything too spectacular with Kevin yet, I think I'm avoiding it because I can't make up my mind..... Heh heh, if I made all of your classmates think you are insane, then my life is now complete. Thanks for the review. I'll try and drop by 'Way of the Hunt' sometime.  
  
Wingnut: The reviewer who always manages to be funnier than the author in less space. (So jealous....) The train sucked, though I did convince my seatmate I was a stunt woman who had spent her high school years in a mental institution in Sydney. Hours of fun, right there.  
  
Solarious: I didn't intentionally ignore your review - you reviewed while I was in the middle of posting. I was briefly tempted to ignore this review just to be funny but..... you know, Rabites of Doom and all..... Just you wait, as soon as my pet Mana Beast grows to full size..... Sorry, but Riesz isn't staying, the main party will remain strictly Hawk, Duran and Angela because too many characters all the time ruins the story. Don't worry, the others will still be getting plenty of screen time, though. I was also considering maybe completely omitting Kevin from the story just to drive people mad, but I broke under pressure. Anyhow, I've dragged out the Response to Reviewers far too long already this chapter, so thanks for the review, and welcome to this humble try-hard fic.  
  
Sorry about the length of response to reviewers this time, but I felt it was all important to say (well, maybe not, but....). I'll have to watch myself, my tendency to warble may yet come back to haunt me... as if that voice in my head wasn't enough. Thanks for your reviews!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 10 - Escape from Jad and the Psychotic Child  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
What time was it? Heck, what day was it? And the most important question of all - where was she?  
  
Angela of Altena opened her eyes, images slowly coming into focus to reveal what she could only deduce was a prison cell. Oh, that really sucked. Okay then, time to start using her powers of instant-memory recall and deduction. They'd been pushed off an impossibly high cliff-edge down into a waterfall by the Beastmen. Shouldn't they be dead?  
  
Apparently not. Probably Wisp's influence, and the water cushioning the fall might've helped too. The Beastmen must have dragged them off - Jad was their most likely current position, since it was the only place not too far from the Cave of Waterfalls that both had a dungeon and the Beastmen were currently occupying. At least it proved the Beastmen weren't completely heartless animals to leave them there. Well, more likely they didn't want them creating any more trouble, but still.....  
  
Now that issue was all taken care of, the Princess sat up, pushing her violet hair out of her eyes. Next to her, she saw Duran was awake, too, apparently only just so.  
  
"You okay?" he asked seriously. Angela nodded in reply, too tired to bother turning the simple question into an opportunity for flirting. "Good. The Fairy went and checked around, and apparently we're in Jad."  
  
That thought in mind, Angela was immensely disappointed at having being transported here unconscious. She had secretly been hoping that she might get to see whether or not that suppposed cleaning fairies really had cleaned everything up. If nothing else, she would have liked to prove the little deity wrong.  
  
Standing and stretching, she thought she could hear someone over in the next cell. "Anyone there?"  
  
"Is that you Princess Angela?" a vaguely familiar voice floated back over.  
  
"Princess Riesz?"  
  
There was a brief silence, then..... "Why did you leave me in Jad?! Tell that moron thief Hawk that his hide is mine for getting me that drunk! I got caught trying to get out of Jad because of him!"  
  
It was an entertaining idea to hand over Hawk to a very pissed off Riesz, but there were more important matters going on. "Are you the only one there?"  
  
"Well, no, there's some little kid here still sleeping. Cute thing, blonde hair and all."  
  
Angela felt her blood freeze. No, it couldn't be..... It wasn't Carlie, was it? "That it?"  
  
"No, there's a Beastman in here too!"  
  
"Gah! Kevin going to be in big trouble with Beast King," an unidentified voice added.  
  
Angela was still stuck on the possibility of the demonic little elf-girl being asleep in the next cell to take much notice of what the anonymous Beastman had to say. Trying to take her mind off the possibility, she turned to Duran. "Why is Hawk still asleep? Wake him up!"  
  
Duran shrugged. "I already tried, but he's out cold."  
  
Not believing it, she reached over with her foot and gave the thief a generous kick. No response whatsoever. Oh. Wait a minute, Wisp would be able to help with this sort of thing, right? There was no point of having an Elemental of Mana hanging around if you weren't going to use him. Plus, she at last had magical powers! She'd been waiting her whole life for this, it wasn't going to go to waste. "Yo, Wisp!"  
  
To her delight, the entity of light materialised a moment later. "How can I help you out, Angela?"  
  
"Wake up Hawk for us, okay? There's no way he's having a nap while I'm trying to solve the problem to our current dilemma!"  
  
The Elemental of Light wafted over to the unconscious thief and disappeared. Moments later, the Fairy decided this was as good as time as any to make her grand entrance after her brief excursion from Duran's head - again. "Wisp sure is taking his time."  
  
That was for sure. The Princess tapped her foot impatiently. Finally, Hawk awoke. Blinking groggily, he sat up and stared at them all briefly.  
  
"Welcome back, Hawk," Angela said.  
  
From the next cell over, Riesz prepared to start flinging out insults at the Navarrian again. "THAT WAS SO NOT A NICE THING TO DO!"  
  
Wincing at the volume, the thief put a hand behind his head in a gesture of embarrassment. "Riesz is here, too, huh?"  
  
"Yeah, and can you blame her for being pissed? We're in a prison cell. It's not going to be easy to save the world from here! Oh, Duran, where's our weapons?" Angela asked as an afterthought, sweetening her voice to talk to the Knight.  
  
Pointing through the bars, he indicated the treasure chest sitting against the opposite wall. "I think they're all in there. We can't do anything until we get them back."  
  
"Then try and reach it! Come on, Duran, you know you can do it!" Angela urged.  
  
To his credit, he actually tried to reach through the bars, though he obviously fell far short of even touching the chest. It probably had been stupid to even try, but the Princess had never prided herself on depth perception. Somewhere in the next cell the anonymous Beastman mumbled something about them thinking the Beastmen must be complete idiots if they'd leave weapons within arms reach of a cell, but everyone courteously ignored him. "Well, this is a problem."  
  
Hawk decided it was time to throw in his two cents worth. "Angela, you should be skinny enough to fit through the bars, right?"  
  
Angela raised her hand, then remembered her beloved staff wasn't in it. "I forbid you to ever try and comment on my weight! Keep your useless ideas to yourself from now on!"  
  
Riesz added from the next cell over - it was so irritating that they couldn't see her, "That sounded like a compliment to me, Princess Angela."  
  
"No need to get jealous, Riesz! I think you're beautiful too!" Hawk called over.  
  
An uncanny silence followed from the other side. Riesz was known for beating up her suitors, so she probably didn't get too many comments on her beauty.  
  
"Stop your flirting and help us get out of here!" Angela hissed. Rolling his eyes, the Navarrian messed with his hair for a minute, then withdrew a pin, making his way to the bars. After a few seconds of fiddling with the lock, the barred gate swung open.  
  
Everyone was left speechless and mouths hanging open in a most undiginifed fashion.  
  
Duran, interestingly enough, was the first to react, clapping Hawk on the back. "Alright Hawk! There are some places my Aunt keeps locked up in the house that I must get your help with."  
  
"Anytime, Duran," Hawk said, coughing and trying to regain his breath after Duran's friendly whack. The Knight certainly didn't know his strength.  
  
Riesz was glaring at them from the other cell - now they could actually see her. "And how, mister Hawk, did you do that?"  
  
"Busted out of your fair share of prisons, have you?" Angela remarked.  
  
Hawk shrugged, and grinned engagingly. "I keep telling everyone, I'm a thief, it's what I do. Why are you all so surprised?"  
  
"Gah, stealing is bad," the Beastman commented, rubbing a hand through his thick mane of hair. He seemed a little more human looking than the rest of them.  
  
Suddenly remembering her manners, or what passed for them, Riesz said, "Oh, this is Kevin. He says he's the Prince of the Beast Kingdom, but is currently in exile. Dead dog or something."  
  
"No speak about Karl like that! Karl great friend! Must get revenge for Karl! That why Kevin is here," the Beastman protested.  
  
Raising an eyebrow, Angela murmured, "You don't say...." He talked a bit like Carlie, come to think of it, though she had already decided he was less annoying and probably more intelligent.  
  
The Fairy, still out and about, landed on her shoulder to whisper in her ear. "Angela, you and Riesz aren't twins, are you? You're both incredibly violent and insensitive!"  
  
"We're nothing alike, not even how we act! Now shut up or we'll leave you behind," the Princess hissed back.  
  
"Hey, isn't that Carlie sleeping in there?" Duran pointed out.  
  
There was a long silence, even Riesz and the newly-introduced Kevin turning to look at the sleeping bundle of blonde hair and pink clothes. Not wanting to stare at the sight just in case she started to go soft at all the cuteness, Angela went over and motioned for Hawk to work his magic on the chest with their weapons in it. Seconds later, it was open, and she began to pawn through their weapons, and sure enough, there was that distinctive morningstar. She held up the heavy weapon for everyone's inspection.  
  
Hawk nodded. "It's Carlie all right."  
  
"I think we should destroy it before she tries to use it one of us again," the Fairy added.  
  
"That child is stalking us, I am convinced," Angela agreed. She dropped the weapon with a clang, still not waking the sleeping child or bringing the obviously deaf guards running, and swearing as the chain landed on her foot. Even when the kid was asleep her possessions were out to get her!  
  
"Hey, guys, don't you think it's about time you let us out?" Riesz said impatiently, tapping her foot and no doubt itching to get her hands on her lance so she could teach Hawk a lesson or three about leaving drunk royal Princesses behind in Jad.  
  
"We were going to but now that you have THAT in there with you I'm not so sure," Angela replied, handing Duran's sword to him and reclaiming her beloved and thankfully undamaged staff.  
  
"Besides," Hawk added, "I'm not so sure if I want you on this side of the bars with a big pointy stick. Maybe if we were in private...."  
  
This time the staff connected, though not as hard as the Princess would have liked. Hawk rubbed his head, wincing. "Were you born this much of a pervert or do you just do it to annoy everyone?"  
  
"Gah. At least let Kevin out?" The Beastman asked hopefully.  
  
Riesz, even without her beloved lance, quickly used her fist to display her thoughts on that idea. "You moron! Either we all leave this cell or none of us leave this cell!"  
  
"Are all Princesses so violent and temperamenal?" Hawk wondered.  
  
"I'm not sure, I don't think King Richard has a heir to compare with," Duran replied.  
  
Eeeek, that was right! This was not at all a good display to be subjecting her beloved Duran to! Her darker sides of her personality would be best kept a secret, surely a noble Knight such as him wasn't interested in a rough-around-the-edges, violent, weapon-wielding Princess! Angela paused, thinking that perhaps she may have just described Riesz, quickly stopping that thought before the Fairy could read it and relay it onto her fellow female companion. Anyhow, this was the time to display some compassion..... "Hawk, let them out, but everybody is FORBIDDEN from waking up Carlie, understand?"  
  
"What's the problem? She's so cute!" Riesz complained.  
  
Duran just nodded his agreement - he had grown quite fond of the young girl, saying something along the lines of she reminded him of his little sister, but Hawk's face twitched at the idea of being constantly referred to as 'pervert man' and Angela almost had a fit at the idea of having to put up with Carlie for more than two minutes. "Rabites are cute too! Until they try to eat you!"  
  
"Fine, fine," Riesz agreed impatiently. "We won't try to wake her up. Just let us out!"  
  
"Do you promise?" Angela pressed.  
  
"I promise, okay? Do you want it in writing?"  
  
"Do you have a piece of paper?"  
  
The Amazon slapped a hand to her head in frustration. "That little girl can't possibly be that bad!"  
  
"Oh, she is," the magician assured her as Hawk began fiddling with their lock. Moments later, the cell door swung open, freeing the inhabitants. Kevin bent down and scooped up the still-sleeping High Priest's granddaughter, and Riesz busied herself by grabbing her lance and a fistful of Hawk's tunic.  
  
"Why, hello, Hawk," she said sweetly.  
  
The thief waved a hand nervously. "Hey there, Riesz! Long time no see!"  
  
"The only thing you're going to be seeing now is stars, buster!" Riesz jerked him for good measure. Angela sighed, considering whether or not to interfere, but fortunately Kevin saved her the trouble.  
  
"Gah, should hurry. Guard is coming," he interrupted, clenching his fists in anticipation.  
  
"Uh oh. We shouldn't hang around here, this city is still crawling with Beastmen who'll recognise us," Riesz informed them, dropping her prey. "I heard right before I was caught that there's a boat leaving Jad for Maia very soon. We'll have to take out the guard and make a run for it if we want to make it!"  
  
Angela rolled up her sleeves - or rather, pretended to, seeing as a dress as skimpy as that didn't really have any. "Right, you can leave this one to me. Wait here."  
  
"Princess, are you sure you'll be okay?" Duran asked, concerned.  
  
Well, she ought to be flattered that he was showing concern, that was some progress. But he was still calling her Princess! What was WITH that?! Why couldn't anyone just call her by 'Angela' anymore? "I'll be fine. Be right back!"  
  
Smoothing out the creases in her dress, she gripped her cane and determinedly strode towards the sound of a single pair of approaching footsteps - no doubt the guard coming to check on them. Hurrying to meet him on the stairs, Angela did her best to feign happy surprise when she made eye contact with the guard.  
  
"Wow! A real Knight of the Beast King? How amazing!" she said, clasping her hands together in fake admiration. She sure hoped this work, otherwise she was shishkabob.  
  
The Beastman was so perplexed by her reaction that he didn't do much more than mutter, "Uh....." Perfect. He'd obviously forgotten that it was extremely suspicious for anyone to be down here. And if the way she was standing worked on him the way the way it worked on just about any other male, then both his eyes and thoughts were lost somewhere in her cleavage rather than pinning her face to that of a prisoner.  
  
Using the opporunity to grasp his arm, she put on her sweetest and most innocent face and voice, so sugary that she doubted even Carlie in a good mood could out-do it. "I've so been dying to meet one of you! Wow, feel these muscles! I know this is terribly forward, but do you want to have a drink? I hear the pub in Jad is really fantastic!" Such a brutal lie, the alcohol there had been strong, but not terribly fine.  
  
"Uh, okay....," the guard said, obviously just deciding to go along with what had to seem like unusually good fortune. She was terribly lucky that the Beastmen weren't amazingly quick thinkers, or very skilled in the art of creative lying, either.  
  
She had him. Now for the 'look-afraid-and-stare-at-some-amazing-evil-in- the-other-direction' move. Gasping dramatically, she shrieked, "What's that?"  
  
Reflexively, the guard turned to see what it was this fair damsel was so distressed over. She couldn't believe he fell for it - the oldest trick in the book! Raising her cane she swiftly brought it down on the Beastman's head with a satisfying crack. Smiling sweetly, she backtracked past the now unconscious guard. "So sorry. I just decided that I don't condone inter-species romance."  
  
Making her way back to the others, she was in the middle of saying, "Okay, guys, the coast is clear, let's-" only to be cut off most rudely by having to duck a distinctive flying morningstar.  
  
"Uh oh," she said emphatically. Apparently, Carlie was now awake. And very angry.  
  
"Carlie thought Duran was friend! Why let bad pervert man do that? Leave Carlie behind like so? Slutty girl too! You be sorry!"  
  
Riesz muffled a laugh at their nicknames, immediately earning herself a glare from the terrifying tyke. Angela used this brief moment of distraction to make their escape. Grabbing Duran with one arm and Hawk with the other, she ran for the exit. "We have to get out of here! Now! Or we'll never be rid of her!"  
  
Suddenly she realised that she was actually pulling Hawk along with her, wondered why, and quickly let go, but he was as anxious to get away from the kid's scary morningstar and high pitched voice as much as she was. "It's pointless, Angela! She'll just turn up again, even angrier than now!"  
  
"I don't care, we have to run!" she shouted back. Duran was running with them now too, though why neither of them were sure because he had previously befriended the girl just fine. They blew past a couple of Beastmen guards, and made straight to the port. The boat was just about to leave the dock as they ran up. Hawk gave Duran a leg up over the side, just about threw Angela in, then leapt over the railing himself as the boat began to pull away. They all collapsed, out of breath, Angela too puffed to even berate Hawk for throwing her around like a sack of potatoes. They all stood as the boat pulled away from the dock to see Riesz, Kevin and a now-teary - maybe the kid was actually fifteen, she certainly had the mood- swings of a teenager - come running to the edge.  
  
Riesz was stomping the ground in frustration at missing their one ticket out of there, but present enough to stop Kevin from jumping into the ocean to try and swim to catch up to the boat. Carlie, though was crying out to them as they pulled away. "Friend Duran! No leave Carlie here with Scary Lady and Beastie Man! Come back! Carlie will even forgive Pervert man and Slutty Girl!"  
  
They could faintly hear Riesz's indignant "What did you just call me?!" in the distance.  
  
"Does the child have a complete inability to call anyone other than herself and Duran by their actual names?" Angela complained, gritting her teeth and grappling to contain her immense feelings of relief for having at least temporarily waylaid Carlie and trying to replace them with sympathy for a now stranded Riesz and Kevin. Even more sympathetic for them as now they had to contend with an unpredictably moody claiming-to-be-a-fifteen-year- old girl who could switch from demonically angry to insufferably sweet in .25 seconds.  
  
Hawk, though, was cheerfully waving goodbye to the three stranded on the edge of the pier. The Fairy, having obviously vanished into Duran's head for most of the fun, reappeared and took her favourite spot on the Princess's shoulder. "Maybe I was wrong, Angela. Hawk just might be more insensitive than you."  
  
"Let's see if he's sensitive to an impact with my staff!" Angela suggested, raising her weapon in the air gleefully. Sadly, her excitement at getting rid of Carlie (again), and Duran's earlier concern for her safety far outshone any sympathy she had for the stranded trio.  
  
Hawk dodged the swipe, reappearing in his usual eerier fashion on the other side of her. "Let's not and say we did, hmmm?"  
  
"You just insist on exisiting, don't you?!" she fumed.  
  
"Just as much as you insist on jumping Duran," he replied casually.  
  
That was the second time he'd dare mention her obvious attraction to Duran aloud in public! That did it! Still, she didn't want to humiliate herself by trying to hit him with her staff and miss again. Hey wait, she had magic now, didn't she?  
  
Hawk backpedaled nervously as she turned to him, grinning maniacally. "Um, Angie?"  
  
The Princess raised her staff again. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
______________________________  
  
Please don't forget to review! Cheers. 


	11. Tournament of the Exes

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Also in the warning: lots of stupidity and senseless mayhem ahead! Beware!  
  
Author's note: Even if it's getting harder to post regularly, I'm trying to combat this lack of updating (and thus deter the event of Black Rabites of Doom appearing on my soon-to-be-demolished-anyway doorstep) by a nice big long chapter. Please don't get used to them, but feel free to enjoy them! I hope this story doesn't become too silly, because I am beginning to think my standard is dropping dramtically. I only ever get good ideas on rainy days, though, and since it hasn't rained here for about two months (damn drought!) my creative juices are drying up. Time to go do a dance to the rain gods I guess.  
  
Extra-special Author's note!: Even though this is a little pre-emptive, I am now taking votes for what you guys want the final classes of Duran, Angela and Hawk to be. The classes probably won't be a big issue in this, but people like their say and far be it from me to deny you your rights as reviewers! I don't have too much of a personal preference anyway, so please, vote away, knock yourselves out!  
  
Response to Reviewers! (Thank you all. You have become my reason to get up each morning):  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: I'm glad you like the personal responses, I find it to be a more rewarding experience for both the reviewer and the writer if there's actually more than a one-way communication. Besides, I like to defend myself and my stories and thus validate my existence as a fanfic writer. For example, fair enough point about Riesz's character (or Lise, if you prefer), but I figured that she seemed like the type to have a bit of a temper, and being abandoned in Jad then dumped in a prison cell she probably wouldn't be in a gentle, shy and sweet mood. Besides, it's hard to write (I find excuses for everything....) Anyhow, thanks very much for the review as always!  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Thanks for the review! Even if it's just to say hi, it's always to good to hear from you.  
  
ChibiCharizard: Months to write two pages, I don't feel so bad about delayed updates anymore. A lot of people seem to be used to the name Lise, but dang it, I had to go get the Japanese version from somewhere first, didn't I? Anyhow, I hope people can put up with that, because it's far too late to change. Thanks for your review!  
  
Solarious: Of course Angela has to get all the bad luck in the world, it wouldn't be funny otherwise (insert evil laugh in your choice of spelling here). I'll have to think about making a chapter on violent and temperamental Princesses, hmm...... I'm still working on ideas for Kevin's characterisation, which is probably why he's had about three lines thus far. Ah well, I have a few more chapters before I have to start worrying about it again. No! Keep the Rabites of Doom away! Hurry up and GROW, Mana Beast, we don't have much time! Excuse me, I'm going to have to go raise the Mana Fortress to hurry things up a bit.  
  
Wingnut: I fear the day Minerva makes her appearance. Love hearing from you guys, you inspire me for some reason. My dance to the rain gods doesn't seem to be working, want to ask one of your buddies to do something about it?  
  
As usual, thanks to all the reviewers! Hope you enjoy the chapter, though I really wonder how ANYONE can find this funny anymore....  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 11 - Tournament of the Exes  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Angela didn't think she'd ever been quite so happy to get off a boat. At least, that was until they arrived in Maia. The Princess had done her fair of travelling before, but never before to so many small towns filled with questionably sane people in such a short time.  
  
"At last! I'm so looking forward to sleeping in an inn!" Angela announced. "Then off we can go to find Gnome! Think of how much more it will hurt when I have GNOME's magic, Hawk."  
  
Hawk massaged his neck with a scowl. "Magic is cheating."  
  
Duran was busy talking to one of the hands on the dock. He followed them a moment later. "If we want to get to Gemstone Valley, which is where the Fairy thinks the Mana Stone Gnome is protecting is, we'll have to find some other way because all the paths are supposed to be blocked off from the road. That guy suggested we try Bon Voyage."  
  
Lo and behold, right next to where they were standing was a house with a sign out the front saying 'Bon Voyage's Amazing Inventions'.  
  
'Well, that's convenient', the Fairy commented from inside Angela's head.  
  
The magician almost had a fit. 'What are you doing inside MY head again! Out, out!'  
  
Hawk was busy opening the door. Duran, being polite as usual, said, "Um, shouldn't we knock?"  
  
The thief shrugged. "The door was unlocked."  
  
"How did you know?" Angela demanded. "Are you trying to rip off houses and innocent people in Maia, too? I bet some old granny in Wendel is STILL looking for her purse!"  
  
"Hey, if you're so righteous, why are you using that cane I bought you with that money then?!"  
  
'I think he has a good point, Angela,' the Fairy agreed.  
  
'When will you start learning that I don't CARE what you think?' Angela mentally hissed back. Instead of answering Hawk, she simply flounced into Bon Voyage's house - and immediately ran into some strange woman.  
  
"Hey, watch it!" she said, cradling her head after the blow. The woman simply smiled and apologised. Well, this certainly couldn't be Bon Voyage, but for good measure she asked anyway. "Are you Bon Voyage?"  
  
"Why no! Bon Voyage is out the back, working on his new invention. You can go see him if you wish," the anonymous woman said. She hid her face behind her hand and giggled, making eyes at Duran. Well, that certainly wouldn't do - Angela grabbed the Knight and dragged him out with her before either of them could get any ideas. Hawk said something that was probably along the lines of an innuendo to the woman before following them out back as well.  
  
The portly - oh, who was she to be tactful, he was downright fat - and short man was hard at work on what looked to be a giant cannon. Wanting to be sure, Angela asked, "Are you Bon Voyage?"  
  
No response.  
  
Annoyed, the Princess repeated, "I said, are you Bon Voyage?"  
  
Still no response.  
  
"HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!"  
  
Finally, a response. He turned to her. "Oh, why hello there pretty miss! I'm afraid you have the wrong place - the brothel is down the road."  
  
The Fairy erupted into laughter. Hawk was grinning too, until he saw her face and what had to be the beginnings of a dangerous spell combo. "Ack, no, don't kill him Angie! We need his help!"  
  
Angela struggled to release her arm from Hawk's grip. "Let me hurt him! Just a little bit!"  
  
Bon Voyage, in the meantime, was regarding them with a puzzled look. "Is something the matter?"  
  
Duran, being the Mana Knight and all, figured it was his Knightly duty to step up while Angela and Hawk argued in the background. "Bon Voyage, sir, we're trying to find a way to Gemstone Valley, and were told you might be able to help us."  
  
The crazy inventor's face positively lit up at this. Angela, having calmed down enough for Hawk to let her go without fear of her harming anyone bodily, tapped her foot impatiently. Bon Voyage starting jumping up and down in excitement. He was even more hyperactive than Carlie.  
  
"Why, yes! At last, someone to help me test my new invention! It's almost finished, but first I'll need some gunpowder! Once you have the gunpowder, come back to me!"  
  
At that, he turned around and began working on his invention with a renewed enthusiasm. The three were left standing and staring at him.  
  
When it appeared that he wasn't going to say anything else, Angela walked over and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and looked at her. "Um, excuse me, but where can we get some gunpowder?" she asked.  
  
Bon Voyage just continued looking at her, scratching his head. "I'm sure I've seen you somewhere. Ever been to Maia before?"  
  
Angela struggled to reign in her already thoroughly tested patience. In fact, if it weren't for the presence of Duran she might have killed the Inventor by now. "Once. But my question was: where can we get some gunpowder?  
  
"Yup! Gunpowder! Need it to work! I can't send you anywhere until I have some gunpowder," Bon Voyage said.  
  
"But where can we get some?!"  
  
The odd inventor just stared at her again with a curious look, as if he couldn't comprehend the words she was saying. Finally, Angela gave up. "Never mind. I'll ask someone else. It could be days before the message reaches your brain."  
  
Bon Voyage just gave them a cheery wave as the three intrepid Mana heroes tiredly left the house, Angela being sure to steer Duran safely past the woman hanging around in the kitchen.  
  
They stood out the front of the house for a moment, feeling a bit lost on what to do next. Duran finally spoke. "Where can we get gunpowder?"  
  
"Hawk," Angela suggested, "Don't you have some underworld buddies stocking that kind of stuff somewhere?"  
  
The thief scowled, kicking a loose stray stone. "I did. But this is Maia, and all the contacts I have here would probably hand me straight over to the thieves guild if I went there asking for stuff. The bounty on my head's probably bigger than anything I can steal in this little place."  
  
"You're an outlaw. That's cool!" Duran said in an effort to cheer him up.  
  
It seemed to work. Plastering that permanent smile back on his tanned face, the Navarrian replied, "It's sure to attract the ladies! Speaking of which, if we want to find some other place to get some gunpowder - I highly doubt the local store will sell it at any price we can afford - we should go hang out at the inn."  
  
"Good plan," Angela said sarcastically. "If we're going to get information off anyone, it'll be off a bunch of drunks."  
  
"Drunks talk, my fair Angie," Hawk said, gallantly leading the way.  
  
"I remember once when I had too much I confessed to my aunt that King Richard used to have a crush on her," Duran commented.  
  
"Really? Wow, you must be in good with the King if that's the case," Hawk replied. "If I ever did anything like that to Flamekhan I'd probably be beheaded. These days, anyway."  
  
Angela dropped back as the two men walked ahead, regaling each other with drinking stories. The inn seemed like a good place to go after all - maybe if she got Duran drunk, she might actually get to first base with him or something. Nothing like alcohol to drop a few of the inhibitions....  
  
They arrived at the inn and went inside, sitting down and ordering a drink and a meal. The hot food was most welcome, after eating their rations for the past few days. It wasn't so bad, travelling like this - heck, she was even starting to think Hawk came in handy every now and then, even though she'd probably prefer being alone with just Duran.  
  
'How come you never count me in any of your equations?' the Fairy whined inside of her head.  
  
'Because you are an annoying pint-sized insect, that's why!' Angela retorted. 'Get back into Duran's head already!'  
  
'I can't!' she wailed. 'There are people here, they might see me!'  
  
So she was stuck with the insect for even longer then. That was just great. When had she snuck in there anyway? Duran was the chosen Mana Knight, she ought to just stay in his head! Or stay in Hawk's for a change, but she kept insisting that she refused to share a skull with a thief.  
  
Sighing, Angela almost didn't notice the guy who had pulled up a chair next to her until he'd started talking.  
  
"Angela, long time no see," he said with a leer.  
  
She stared at him, perplexed. "Who are you?"  
  
The man managed to look offended for a whole two seconds. "You mean you don't remember me, Hector? After that fantastic night we spent together?"  
  
Angela was trying to rack her memory from her long list of nights out getting drunk in foreign cities. "It can't have been too fantastic, I'm drawing a blank here." From the looks of this guy, her standards obviously dropped a lot when she drunk and lonely.  
  
Putting a hand on her knee, he leaned forward, "Well, then why don't we get reacquainted?"  
  
Face quickly getting red, Angela eyed her staff which she had foolishly left by the door next to Duran's sword and their bags. "Hands off, pervert! I've got bigger fish to fry than dealing with drunken idiots in bars!" She cast a glance over to where Duran was chatting with the waiter. Why didn't he say something? Come on, Duran, she mentally cursed, this is your cue!  
  
'Hector', if that was his real name, didn't get the hint. He simply moved in closer, saying, "Aw, come on, Angela, let's run off together. You were quite happy with the idea last time."  
  
Dang, being sexy all the time had its drawbacks! "Lay off already!" He still didn't get the hint.  
  
Suddenly, 'Hector' became still and pale when a short curved blade was held within an inch of his throat. "Why don't you get the hint that the lady isn't interested?" a very pissed-off looking Hawk intoned.  
  
The strange man pulled back carefully. "Sorry, sir."  
  
Hawk turned to her. "What's your problem, Angie? I get blasted by a spell for making harmless comments and some guy hits on you in a bar and you just sit there? Are you delusional or something?"  
  
"I was waiting for Duran to step up, and you ruined it, you idiot!" she hissed back. Duran apparently still hadn't noticed what was going on, even though the waiter he'd been talking to was staring at the thief with a terrified expression. He was still stuck on the thought of tracking down some gunpowder - that was Duran, complete dedication to his mission.  
  
Suddenly grinning, Hawk withdrew his blade. "Oh. I get it. Well then.....," he said, turning back to 'Hector'. "You really interested in Angela?"  
  
The guy had more nerve than she thought - he nodded, though still kept his distance from this scary individual. "In that case," Hawk proclaimed, "You can have her- IF you can beat THAT guy in a sword fight!" The thief gestured to Duran with a flourish.  
  
"Hawk! What are you doing?" Angela protested, even as Hector's, and several other vaguely familiar-looking males' faces lit up.  
  
Hawk grinned. "You wanted Duran to fight for you, didn't you? Well, here you go."  
  
"Fine!" Hector agreed, standing up. "I will win the lovely Angela's hand in battle! I'll duel with that bozo tomorrow at dawn, in the town square!" With that, he strode out of the bar.  
  
"Hey! Hey! I'm not gonna be some prize for a swordfight! Is anyone listening to me?! HAWK!"  
  
Hawk was observing his handiwork with a satisfied smirk as the bar quickly emptied. Duran finally noticed what was going on. "A challenge? What?"  
  
"Duran! You mean you didn't hear it? That guy challenged you to a sword duel, and if you lose you have to hand over your knighthood AND they'll run off with Angela and the Fairy and you won't be able to save the world!" Hawk explained.  
  
"What? No way!" Duran looked alarmed.  
  
Patting the Knight on the back, the thief reassured him, "There's no need to worry, all you have to do is beat him, right?"  
  
The Forcenan immediately relaxed. "Oh yeah. Thanks for watching out for me there, Hawk."  
  
"No problems!"  
  
'Dirty stinking filthy rotten liar,' the Fairy commented somewhere inside her head.  
  
'How do you think I feel? I'm the prize in some orchestrated sword fight now, and Duran doesn't even know I'm the prize he's fighting for!' Angela complained. Out loud, she commented sarcastically, "Good one, Hawk. That was just what I wanted."  
  
"What?" Hawk asked innocently. "You have a problem with it?"  
  
"Of course I have a problem with it! How stupid are you?! Your brain would rattle inside a flea's skull!" Angela yelled.  
  
Hawk protested that, of course. "Fleas don't have skulls!"  
  
"Rrrrgh, I can't take this anymore! I'm going to bed!" Angela announced, and stalked off to sleep, stopping by Duran to drop off the Fairy. Duran said goodnight himself, then started talking to Hawk about the upcoming duel the next day. Nothing like a duel to excite a Knight, she supposed. Maybe Hawk really did know what he was doing.  
  
That idiot? Nah. He just screwed everything up.  
  
Angela hardly slept three hours that night, though, anxious about the next day. To say she wasn't concerned about the welfare of her big crush would be lie - even though she knew he was a competant swordsman, she'd never seen him against another swordsman yet, and she had no idea of how good that Hector fellow whom she had supposedly seduced at one point, possibly years ago, was at swordsmanship.  
  
Dawn came with Hawk dragging her out of bed and down to the town square where Duran was already prepared for the day's duel. This had absolutely nothing to do with their quest, why were they wasting their time with this? The Fairy was probably annoyed, too. And after that whole affair in the inn last night, they'd completely forgotten to ask anyone about where they could find some gunpowder!  
  
Seating herself on a barrel in a good position to watch the fight, the Princess glared daggers at the thief. "If this doesn't work, then you are aware I'm going to kill you."  
  
"Aw, come on, Angie, have a little faith in Duran, won't you? He's the Mana Knight!"  
  
'That's right,' the Fairy agreed from inside her head.  
  
Again, Angela had to suppress the urge to have a fit. 'When did you sneak into my head again?!'  
  
'Shhh,' the deity shushed her. 'It's starting.'  
  
Hector and Duran both raised their swords and bowed to each other. Angela suppressed a yawn from her sleepiness - she'd seen plenty of magical duels while she had been the Princess of Altena, and sword duels weren't that much different. The only thing that made this one interesting was that her honour was at stake and it had Duran in it. Still, if things went wrong she always had her magic - she could just blow the place to smithereens and abscond.  
  
'I don't think that was what Wisp had in mind when he bestowed his magic upon you,' the Fairy said from inside her head.  
  
The Princess paid her no heed as the clash of two metal swords drew her attention. Duran and Hector locked blades and strength for a moment. Then, just as quickly Duran brought his sword under the block, knocked it to the side, and thwapped Hector on the side of the head with the flat of his blade. Angela clapped and cheered. "Go, Duran!"  
  
Hawk, being the self-appointed umpire, stepped in and dragged a dazed yet uncompromising Hector off to the sidelines, returning to hold Duran's fist in the air in triumph. "The Great Knight of Forcena wins! Sorry, mister, you lose."  
  
Hopping off her barrel, Angela made her way over to the pair. "Gee, that was fast. Oh well, great, now we can get going. Come on then!"  
  
"Wait a minute!" an anonymous voice from the crowd called out. "I want to challenge to Knight for Angela as well!"  
  
"Me too!" a second voice added.  
  
"I would like to enter the tournament as well," a third man said.  
  
The trio of heroes, and probably the Fairy too, all stood and stared wide- eyed at the small crowd of men who had gathered with their weapons. Finally, Hawk broke the silence. "You sure get around, don't you Angie?"  
  
"I deny it! I don't know half of these people!" The rest she could barely even recognise. Some of these guys just had to be getting in it for the fun, there was no way she could possibly have this many ex-boyfriends visiting Maia alone just by chance.  
  
'Carlie was right, Angela, you really are a slut!' the Fairy said, aghast inside her head.  
  
'I would agree with you if it meant getting you out of my head! I was a very curious teenager, okay?!'  
  
'Curious? This adds a whole new level to the meaning of promiscuous!'  
  
"Well, are you up to Duran? Think you can handle all these?" Hawk asked with a grin.  
  
Duran apparently was a sucker for a challenges. Raising his sword and grinning, he replied, "Yeah. I need some exercise."  
  
Angela thought she just fell in love with him all over again.  
  
So they sat there as Duran waded through challenger after challenger, most fights never lasting more than twenty seconds, though one guy Angela vaguely recalled as being named Seph or something lasted about three minutes and even managed to work Duran to a sweat. Then there was the Beastman guard Angela had flirted with then knocked unconscious, who had somehow made it all the way to Maia and didn't seem to get the idea that the Princess had just tricked him so she could escape, but Duran had plenty of experience fighting low-ranking Beastmen guards so it was another fairly quick battle. After that, Angela then began deciding that even if sword duels mostly involved hot guys, they were immensely more repetitive and boring than magical duels, also lacking the great special effects. Halfway through, she stopped watching and began inspecting the grain on the barrel she was sitting on as well, making certain to cheer on Duran at regular intervals. Even the Fairy's mental chatter was starting to wander, occasionally coming back to the point that they were wasting valuable time that they should be spending on their quest.  
  
Hawk yawned. "Gee, Duran, this is getting boring. I might have to challenge you soon just to make things interesting."  
  
The Knight grinned in response. "If you think you can take me, try."  
  
Waving a hand to dispel the idea, the thief just stretched. "Nah, I intend to hold on to my dignity a little longer. Just take care of this one quickly, okay? He's the last one, then we can get moving!"  
  
Nodding, Duran charged the next opponent, who managed to block a couple of the Knight's strikes before a mighty blow from Duran on the hilt of the sword loosened his grip enough so that the next strike sent the sword flying from his grasp. Gulping at the sword tip pointed at his throat, the last challenger conceded defeat and slunk to the sidelines along with the rest of the sorry losers who Angela couldn't even believe she'd ever dated. She was just about ready to swear off alcohol and partying it was so humiliating.  
  
Hawk patted Duran on the back, congratulating him, Duran taking it in his stride. "Well," Angela said cheerfully, hopping down from her vantage point to join them, "With that over with, let's so find some gunpowder. Any of you losers know where we might find some?"  
  
Duran sheathed his sword and gave his many challengers a stern look. That got a quick response.  
  
"You can try the dwarves, they have gunpowder and weapons and everything! They live in a cave just off the path of the Golden Road!" Hector babbled, a couple of others nodding their confirmation earnestly. They'd already been publicly humiliated, there was no point incurring any further wrath upon themselves that day.  
  
Angela smiled sweetly. "Why, thank you! Come on, guys, let's get going then. It's nearly lunchtime as it is!"  
  
With that, the three of them began walking away, only to be intercepted at the edge of town by another anonymous villager carrying a wimpy-looking sword.  
  
"Angela! Is it true that in this town you can enter a tournament to win your hand?"  
  
That did it. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
Several dramatic explosions of light later, Angela dusted her hands off and straightened her gloves. "Well then, shall we continue?"  
  
Hawk and Duran merely nodded wordlessly, the Fairy still inside her skull muttering about using her powers for evil or something like that. Determined to ignore her, the Princess strode ahead, leading the way out of Maia.  
  
Despite the whole sordid affair being immensely embarrassing, it had given the Princess an idea, though. Duran didn't seem to be noticing her obvious affections and come-ons, so he would simply have to made to realise his true feelings in a different manner. And an expert on seduction such as herself knew one of the best ways to get a guy's attention was through jealousy.  
  
The plan was simple. She simply had to stop doting on Duran and start throwing herself at someone else. And since Hawk was the most convenient male around both of them at the time, he'd be the target of her fake attractions until Duran finally grew a clue.  
  
So Angela's next campaign would soon begin. 


	12. The Not Really Golden Road

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Also in the warning: reading this fanfic may be hazardous to your sanity. If you start to find this funny, we recommend you seek counseling.  
  
Author's note: If you ask me, every chapter seems to be running the same old jokes by now with different words thrown in here and there, but I hope you all keep reading in the spirit that I may invest in some plot development at some point. Also, thanks to those who voted, and those who didn't still have a chance! Unless we get a lot of votes otherwise, Duran's going to wind up being a Paladin, but I haven't received enough votes on Angela and Hawk yet to make a decision, though Angela's looking to be heading down the Sorceress path and Hawk seems to have received a vote for just about everything. Anyhow, it's starting to look like once a week is my standard for updating, so I'm trying to produce some decent-length chapters for this then. Hope you like it.  
  
Response to Reviewers! (jeez, it's getting long. I think it's a record number of reviews! Thanks everyone! If you want to skip this as this section tends to get long, feel free to jump ahead to pretty line):  
  
Nadia: Thanx for the E-Mail, and the high praise (blushes). Everybody seems to like Carlie here.. Feel free to go ahead and write your fic, I'd love to see it, I give my whole hearted permission. (Course for that I'd need a heart.. and I also really don't see why you needed it, but I'm flattered if this fic was an inspiration.) Hurry and get a membership at FF.net!  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Thank you. Natch.  
  
ChibiCharizard: Thanks for trying to review even when you had so little time! (And it's true, you always do need a healer.) BTW, I went and checked out your fic, 'Way of the Hunt' the other day, and I quite liked it. I'll have to drop back around some time and actually review it. (I'm so lazy.)  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Thank you for the high praise, you even go to all the effort in your review to pick out your favourite lines! (Laughs) It just wouldn't be a review from Rosa if there wasn't something about Hawk being a Rogue in it. I'm trying to start dropping the hints for the Hawk/Angela romance, but like I said, it's going to be a slow, slow path.... good comments about Angela and throwing rainbows around, made me laugh.  
  
Cookie Pixie: Boom. Titanic indeed. Heh heh. It begins.... well, sort of. It will. The thought is actually out there now, anyway. Thanks for your review, and for voting, you have good points on all of them there.  
  
Solarious: If Angela was going to be so flirtatious, she obviously would have some baggage with it, don't you agree? Hmm, interesting comparision with that show, though I can't say I've seen it. My God, your Rabites of Doom are getting big! (Grumbles). What's taking so long? Rise, sunken continent, rise! Thanks for the review, as always.  
  
Wingnut: Are you sure you guys didn't do something? Because seriously, the day after posting this chapter we were hit by a freakin' CYCLONE! It hasn't stopped raining since! We're actually flooded! I've been spending all of my time running around my flat placing buckets to catch all the water leaking through the roof (I don't know how it passes safety inspections. Actually, maybe it didn't, maybe that's why its being torn down **cries**). After not raining for so long it's like the floodgates have opened. Maybe my rain dance does work. Or maybe we had overkill. Ah well, I still feel as though I should thank you for that one. And for the review. (Bows to Wingnut and friends).  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 12 - The Not-Really Golden Road  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The three and a half intrepid Mana heroes were less than impressed when confronted with the somewhat legendary 'Golden Road'.  
  
Angela fumed, "Isn't this supposed to be the Golden Road? It's not even a proper road! It's just a half-overgrown path of yellow bricks!"  
  
"Wouldn't that make it a yellow brick road?" Duran suggested, then chuckled at something he found funny about that.  
  
Hawk seemed particularly disappointed at their discovery. "I was really hoping for a road made out of gold, too."  
  
"Hoping to pilfer a few bricks, thief?" the Princess replied, then stopped herself. Even though she'd only figured out her new plan to woo Duran through Hawk (it was twisted logic but made sense when she thought about it) about ten minutes ago, she had quickly realised (after an extra two minutes of planning) that it was going to be more difficult than it at first seemed. She was used to breaking hearts, so that wasn't too much of a drama, but more pressing was the notion that she wasn't going to be doing much for her credibility as her instinct to insult and/or grievously injure the thief kept surfacing beyond her control, at least five times in the remaining past eight minutes since her course of action had been chosen. Thus, though her plan was in motion, it was very, very slow motion.  
  
"Hey look, a rabite!" Duran pointed out, as their conversation on the mis- labelling of the Golden Road had now exceeded his usual attention span.  
  
"It's more interested in jumping around in the weeds than bothering us, let it be," Angela dismissed.  
  
"A rabite's beyond your dignity as a swordsman anyway, Duran," Hawk agreed.  
  
"I suppose you're right, and I did spend a lot of time fighting other people this morning. But what about that giant walking mushroom-thing?" Duran pointed at what appeared to be some sort of walking mushroom charging in their general direction.  
  
"First rule of combat, kill it before it kills you," Hawk commented, once again making his two kodachi appear in his hands out of what appeared to be thin air.  
  
"Stop doing that, Hawk, it's creepy!" Angela complained. "Can't you just carry your weapons around like an ordinary person?!"  
  
"I think it's a neat trick," Duran said, readying his sword as the anonymous mushroom raced to meet its doom.  
  
Nine and a half seconds or so later, pieces of fungi were scattered everywhere.  
  
"Well, that was certainly gory," Angela said, as they all stood there for a moment in an awkward post-minor battle silence.  
  
"What's so gory about it, Angie? It's just the remains of a giant piece of possessed vegetation. I hear that they have much worse in the Forest of Wonder," Hawk informed her.  
  
'Besides,' the Fairy said from inside her head once again, 'The cleaning fairies will take care of this one no problems. They'll make it decompose right back into the grass from whence it came.'  
  
'Very poetic, but I don't care,' the magician responded. Out loud, she continued, "Well, what are we doing hanging around here for? Let's go find these dwarves that those townspeople were talking about."  
  
By unposken consesus, the travelling party began their trek along the yellow brick road. They encountered a few more odd-looking creatures that one did not usually come across in a hostile situation, had several more pointless arguments about the name of their chosen travelling path, and they even slaughtered a few rabites for fun after deciding the things were just too darn cute and thus dangerous to be left in their see-sawing blissful to murderous existences. Eventually, as it drew towards evening, they arrived at what they presumed to be the entrace to the caves they were looking for.  
  
"Hey, Fairy!" Angela called out.  
  
'What?'  
  
'Get out of my head so I can talk to you verbally already!'  
  
Sighing, the Fairy left the magician's head and hovered in front of them. "What is it?"  
  
Grinning, the Princess's hand jutted out and closed around the tiny deity who shrieked in fright. Seating her on top of her staff and dangling a piece of thread threateningly, Angela said, "We need a lamp. Do your glowing trick!"  
  
"What?!" the Fairy objected.  
  
"Don't make me force you....," Angela warned, holding the piece of thread in front of the Fairy's face. "I will tie you down if I must."  
  
Scowling, the Fairy brightened to a strong glow. "Where did you get the thread, anyway?" Smiling at this, Angela led the way into the dark caves, scaring some bats out as she did so. It was tough to remember not to bash the bats with her cane while the Fairy was on it, as tempting as it was to accidentally forget when the Fairy began whining.  
  
"I can't believe I've been demoted to a light source," she muttered. "We should be using Wisp for this sort of thing."  
  
"Aw, but Fairy, you're so good at it!" Angela exclaimed with fake enthusasiam. The small deity glared at her, but dutifully kept up her glow.  
  
"These caves seem strangely empty of any aggressive creatures," Hawk said quietly, appearing at her side from the shadows. Angela jumped, nearly bringing her cane around to whack the thief in the head once again, the Fairy's shriek stopping her just in time.  
  
"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Duran said. "I'm getting kind of tired of fighting all these new weird monsters appearing so inconveniently in the countryside."  
  
"That's just it," Hawk said, "We had to deal with them in the Cave of Waterfalls and on the paths between towns, but there's very few here at the moment. It's almost like someone was here before us to clean them out."  
  
They stepped out onto a rickety bridge leading, Duran informed them, to Forcena. They were really supposed to be looking for dwarves for gumpowder, not heading to Forcena - why exactly was still partially a mystery, how to find the dwarves even more so. This aside, Angela had the presence of mind to comment, "You have a point there, and we're stepping out onto a bridge leading over what looks like a bottomless chasm - this is too similar to when the Beastmen ambushed us."  
  
They were cursed, they had to be. Angela had barely finished her sentence when from the opposite end of the bridge a running bundle of fluffiness and pinkness carrying a distinctive morningstar came running for her life.  
  
"It's Carlie! No!" Angela shrieked, looking left and right furtively, but there was no way to escape. She was surprised, though, when the child who had tried on multiple occasions to kill her (at least that was what she believed), looked thrilled at the sight of her, Hawk and Duran and quickly proceeded to run and hide behind her. "What?"  
  
Looking at the source of the High Priest Granddaughter's terror, Angela felt her heart sink well below her knees as she noted a small battalion of guards wearing the distinctive military uniform of Altena. Well, here were the bad guys, they were stuck on a bridge over a bottomless chasm and to make matters worse CARLIE of all people was trying to hide behind her skirt, which was no easy task given how short it was. The timing was so perfect she almost felt the urge to look around for some nameless guy holding up cue cards or something.  
  
"Hand that child over to us - wait, it's the Princess!" The lead guard, whom Angela didn't even know the name of though by all rights she probably ought to, shouted.  
  
"Eh, you know these guys Angie?" Hawk asked, relaxing slightly though still keeping a wary eye on Carlie lest she start swinging her weapon around in a fit of unexpected rage again.  
  
"Bad people chase Carlie! They go invade Forcena, want Carlie no tell! But Carlie want to see Mana Stone too!" Carlie eloquently explained from her hiding place behind the magician.  
  
"Boys, we might be having trouble!" she informed them, then looked at the Fairy. "Maybe you ought to go hide in Duran's head for a while - I think I'll be needing my staff."  
  
"Uh, okay," the deity said nervously, disappearing, no doubt glad to be relieved from her 'light source' status. The cavern darkened some, but the Altenan soldiers had brought plenty of flaming torches with them. Come to think of it, they closely resembeled a lynch mob. Trust Carlie to invoke the wrath of the masses. How had she made it here before them anyway?  
  
"Princess, we are under strict orders from your Mother, Queen Valda, to find you and execute you! These orders are to be carried out immediately!" The lead guard announced. Angela could see Hawk and Duran both recoil in surprise at this news - it wasn't every day anyone heard that their mother had put a death penalty on their head, after all. This, however, was no time to be upset. Big emotional breakdowns could come later. For now, she was more interested in preserving her life.  
  
"Ha! You think that's so easy, mage?" she said, raising her staff to the air, not about to be intimidated by some low-ranking liutenant. Even if her magic was just a newly acquired skill, she'd been practicing a lot - mostly on Hawk - and knew she was probably at least a good match for anyone in this party. Not to mention Carlie clinging onto her was something she quickly wanted to rectify. She even preferred the kid clinging on to her beloved Duran over this!  
  
The mage didn't seem too threatened - it was common knowledge throughout Altena, after all, that the Princess couldn't use even a speck of magic. "If you don't resist I promise to make it quick, Princess."  
  
"Rrrrrr," Angela growled, annoyed at being underestimated - though to be honest with herself, better that than overestimated when it came to battle. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
Yelling in surprise, some of the mages retreated whilst others hastily set up magical shields when explosions of holy magical light showered them. The spell had been conducted at too great a distance to do anything more than scratch them up a bit, but the message had been made painfully clear. Angela tried her best not to grin sadistically. She had wanted to show up those snobbish solider mages for years now! How would her dear mother the Queen react when she heard her exiled daughter could suddenly use magic?  
  
"Retreat! We'll let our latest inventions take care of this one!" the head of the small battalion called. They retreated off the bridge and sent four brassy battle robots in instead.  
  
Duran had drawn his sword again and Hawk was prepared for battle as well. Angela was trying to shake a stubborn Carlie from her leg. "Hey, Carlie, thank you for not trying to kill me for once and all but please GET OFF!"  
  
"Princess?" Duran asked, concerned at being faced with the four very creepy and tough-looking machines advancing upon them.  
  
"Oh, don't worry about them they're not as tough as they look," she assured them, in the process of trying to pry off a now-crying Carlie, babbling about what she assumed was their current conversation, though she heard something about Heath and the Scary Lady and Beastie Man in there somewhere as well. "I used to train with the older moldels. Try and hit them on the back panel. It's their weak spot."  
  
Duran didn't look pleased at fighting robots of metal, especially on a narrow bridge. "Couldn't you try and pull rank with them or something? You are their Princess."  
  
"WAS their Princess. They just threatened to kill me, remember? Come on, Duran, this is no big challenge for you! Take care of Carlie for me too, will you?" she egged him on. He was already moving to take on the first of the arriving mechanical monstrosities, though, leaving her with the child still attached and wailing to her leg. Why couldn't the little priestess-wanna-be go into her evil demonic mode and start swinging her scary morningstar around NOW?  
  
Duran and Hawk were busy dodging one each, trying to get around to the back and smash up their circuitry as suggested, so Angela focused her magic on the one nearest to her. The machine made some disturbing squeaks, whirrs and hisses as her Holy Ball spell closed in on it, scorching its armour and frying a good portion of its system. It began jerking in place sporadically, steam coming up from the cracks in its armour. Suddenly, Carlie decided it was time to get her act together and get her revenge on this creature for scaring the living daylights out of her. "YOU PAY FOR SCARING CARLIE!" The morningstar proceeded to make quick work of the rest.  
  
Relieved at having the child off her and directing her obvious pent-up anger problem in a more healthy location, Angela whirled and began frantically beating the advancing robot with her staff, while nearby there was a sound of whirring as another one of their attackers collapsed and fell off the side of the bridge into oblivion as Hawk scored a clean hit. Duran was in the process of running his target through, and though he too had a clean hit, was trying to dislodge his sword from it as it whirred and spun its head repeatedly. Hey, they weren't too bad at this fighting stuff! After all, these weren't just vegetation and cute little rabites in the forest here! These were machines of war! And they were winning! No death penalty today, thank you.  
  
Finally coming down on her opponent with what she hoped was a final, solid blow, hearing SOMETHING break and fervently hoping it wasn't her staff, Angela stood back and watched as the robot began clicking and walking past them to the centre of the bridge. The whirring began to get louder and louder.....  
  
"It's going to blow! Retreat!" the lead mage called out to her troops. They all ran for their lives. Upon hearing this, Hawk, Duran and Angela began to run like the God-Beasts themselves were after them in the direction they'd just come. Carlie remained there, standing and staring at the clanking machine with child-like curiosity. Torn for a moment, after an unhealthily long internal fight with her conscience Angela stepped back and dragged the annoying kid with her, earning a screeching protest. They reached the other side just in time for the whirring to reach a climax and with it, Altena's machine blew up in a most spectacular fireball, taking the bridge along for the ride.  
  
Once the smoke cleared, they remained staring at the vast chasm over which there was no longer any bridge.  
  
"Well, that sucks," Angela stated.  
  
"That was the only path to Forcena!" Duran said, looking worried. "And didn't Carlie say they were going to invade to get the Mana Stone? We have to get there to warn them!"  
  
"Yeah, but how?" Hawk asked. "We can get Bon Voyage to change the destination from the Gemstone Valley to Forcena, since apparently they're the ones who have the Mana Stone after all, but we still haven't found the dwarves or the gunpowder."  
  
"You look for dwarves? Carlie know where!" Carlie proclaimed happily, immediately flouncing off back in the direction of the cavern they'd just been in. Angela was most depressed to find herself following. They were following Carlie! What was wrong with this picture?  
  
The irritating little tyke had stopped in the cavern they had been in not that long ago, seeming to suggest that this was their destination. Just as Angela was ready to verbally rebuke the little urchin for playing games with them, the Fairy suddenly made herself present again. "Wait, I sense magic at work here. Wisp!"  
  
On cue, the Elemental of Light appeared. "How can I help?" Without waiting for any instructions, the spirit floated over to a rock formation. "Ah, an illusion! If I just change the index of refraction-"  
  
"You can do that?" Angela asked, somewhat dumbfounded.  
  
"Of course I can! I made the laws of light physics! Voila!" Moments later, a concealed cave entrance appeared from where there had been nothing but rock moments before.  
  
"The Fairy earns her keep for once," Angela commented, stepping cautiously into the opening, which appeared to be clear of any other bats, zombies or other such nasty surprises.  
  
They entered the cave, surprised to come through into what looked like something of an underground village. Many short folk bearing picks and other forms of mining equipment scurried here and there, Angela once again using her amazing forces of logic to deduce that these must be the dwarves they were looking for. Despite the fact that all of the visitors, with the possible exception of Carlie, were about three times the height of anyone else there, no one really paid them any attention, which would make asking around a bit more difficult. Being in too bad a mood at the moment to bother with the diplomatic approach, the magician tripped one at random who scurried in front of her.  
  
"Ouch! Hey, what's yer problem?"  
  
"We're looking for some gunpowder, do you know where we can get some?" Duran asked.  
  
Grunting as he collected his dropped equipment, the dwarf replied, "If yer lookin' for gunpowder, ask Watts. He ought to be in the item shop. If that's all, I have work to do!" Gruffly, the dwarf pushed past them and went about on his business as usual.  
  
"How rude," Angela commented. Fortunately nobody could be bothered pointing out the fact that she had tripped him in the first place.  
  
After entering a few houses by accident, earning many protests from the residents, as well as Angela having to hit Hawk on the head multiple times for picking up a few 'souveniers' on his way, they managed to walk into what looked to be the desired item shop. A dwarf sat at the counter, snoring loudly.  
  
"A thief's dream," Hawk said with a grin.  
  
"Don't get any ideas, buster, we're here to buy, not steal," Angela said warningly, moving to shake the dwarf awake. The dwarf snorted and sat up, blinking rapidly.  
  
"Eh? Oh, humans! What do you want?"  
  
"Are you Watts?" the magician asked.  
  
"Of course I'm not Watts! I'm just watching the shop while Watts is gone!" the dwarf replied hotly, for some reason offended by the suggestion. Maybe Watts was ugly or something.  
  
"You're not doing a very good job, are you?" Hawk commented. "I could have cleaned this place out while you had a nap."  
  
"Stop your bragging," Angela hissed.  
  
"So where is Watts, then?" Duran questioned.  
  
"Why do you want to know?! Rude humans like you coming in like this, demanding to know where Watts is! That's none of yer business!"  
  
"Little man tell where Watts is!" Carlie demanded, for some reason adopting their mission as her own.  
  
"Shut up, kid!"  
  
"CARLIE NOT A KID!" Carlie leapt up onto the counter in front of the dwarf, who shrieked and fell off his chair.  
  
The sight of the tyke leaping up on to the counter wielding a scary-looking morningstar and intimidating expression in her cute little blue eyes was enough to prompt the dwarf to cooperate, even learning some manners instantly. "I think he's in the tunnel, miss, you can find him there! Please don't hurt me!"  
  
"The tunnel it is!" Duran announced, on a mission and determined not to be distracted even by the cute/destructive antics of Carlie.  
  
"I don't know, this is starting to feel like a wild goose chase," Angela muttered, though still following as the Knight led the way to the tunnel, which they didn't even know the location of. This was a dwarf village, theoretically there ought to be tunnels everywhere.  
  
They left the suitably frightened dwarf to his own devices, and wandered around for a while, Duran eventually finding what looked like the appropriate tunnel through sheer luck. Carlie, unfortunately, still dogged their every step, but for the moment was content to swing her arms and hum to herself as she walked rather than terrorize them or even worse, try and instigate some sort of conversation. Angela did her best to ignore her and instead decided to fill the silence as they walked through the tunnel by unloading some of her recently acquired emotional baggage.  
  
"This is all my mother's fault! If she hadn't tried to kill me for treason we wouldn't be in this situation! We could just go straight to Forcena!" she complained. Once again, it came out far too candidly for her own comfort, and she once again found herself trying to figure out what it was she had done so wrong to incur so much of her mother's wrath. "I mean, I didn't do anything so wrong, did I? I didn't REALLY commit treason. Was I that bad of a daughter?" The anxiety on her face must have shown, because Hawk of all people suddenly decided it was his job to cheer her up.  
  
"Stop stressing out, Angie. You shouldn't worry what they think! Look at me, I've never had any responsibilities! I'm not sad! I'm free, free as a bird!" he said, stretching lazily and nearly hitting his head as they walked through the wide but low tunnel.  
  
"A bird? More like a stray, mangy dog that doesn't eat very often."  
  
"Well, true, but you get my point."  
  
"Carlie like birds! Birds pretty!" the girl offered helpfully.  
  
"Kill me now," Angela groaned, slightly disappointed once again that even Carlie was trying to cheer her up some whilst Duran didn't seem to either notice or care about her dilemma. Sighing, she just resolved to put her plan of indirectly wooing him into action soon.... as soon as she had some more sleep. It took energy to try and flirt with Hawk rather than snap at him, after all. Come to think of it, what time was it, anyway? Underground they couldn't tell the difference between night or day.  
  
There was also the dilemma of how they were going to get rid of Carlie again before her good mood broke, as it inevitably would. One problem at a time, though.  
  
They reached what appeared to be the end of the tunnel, a dwarf hard at work. Angela let Duran approach him this time. "Excuse me, sir, are you Watts?"  
  
"Me? Nuh, Watts is inside. All these darn earthquakes keep causing the tunnel to close up, though! He went to go see what was causing them. If yer looking for him, wait just a moment, and I'll blow the way clear. Stand back!"  
  
They dutifully stood back as the the dwarf laid explosives at the blocked off tunnel. Leaning over to Hawk, Angela whispered, "He has gunpowder, why don't we just buy it off him?"  
  
Hawk shrugged. "I think he's going to be using it already, somehow."  
  
A loud explosion ripped through their ears, deafening them and showering them with dust and debris. Opening her eyes are a few moments, the dust clearing after the second major explosion they'd ecountered that day, they saw the dwarf coughing and admiring his handiwork. Angela, though, was more concerned with the fact that once again she was caked with grime and dust and no doubt looking like a wreck. "Dammit! I just cleaned this dress this morning!"  
  
"Alrighty then, the way is clear....... oh no!" Fitting in with the rest of the bad timing they seemed to experience in their lives, the ground began shake and rumble beneath their feet. Rocks and dust began to be shaken loose from the ceiling. "It's another earthquake!"  
  
"What? We're not going to be cut off again! Come on!" She grabbed Duran and Hawk and the three of them went running through the opening. Carlie came to follow, but as soon as they'd made it through rocks began to fall and a landslide quickly blocked their path. They could hear her wailing until the last of the rocks cut them off from the other side.  
  
Once the earthquake had abated, Hawk went and tested the rocks blocking the entrance from which they had just came. "Well, that was real smart, Angie, now we're stuck in here. Who knows if there's another way out?"  
  
"Well, I got us away from Carlie again, didn't I?" she snapped.  
  
"May as well keep going," Duran said encouragingly, not willing to even let something small like a earthquake get in the way of his quest. "But.... it sure is dark in here."  
  
Angela grinned. "Oh Faaaairy?"  
  
The Fairy appeared before her, but immediately began to look nervous when she saw the wicked gleam in the Princess's eyes. "Oh no, please Angela! Not again?"  
  
_______________________  
  
There you go. Please don't forget to review! 


	13. Chasing the Dwarf with the Skull Hut

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Also in the warning: May contain trace amounts of rock. Avoid if allergic to dirt.  
  
Author's note: Well, I think we have enough votes to make a decision, but I still haven't managed to work up to the urge to tally them, I'll let you know the results next chapter. Thanks to everyone for being patient with all the delays in updating, I have a long list of excuses that you're probably not interested in anyway. The next chapter will probably be at least a week coming too, seeing as in the next two to three days I'll be busy packing my life back up into a series of boxes again and shifting said boxes to a new location and begin the very boring and by now repetitive action of unpacking them again. I'm not too sure what's happening to my net access either, so if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm not dead (at least, not clinically) nor have I abandoned the fic, I will be coming back. Thank you for your patience, as well as your reviews!  
  
On that subject, time for..... Response to Reviewers! (insert dramatic drumroll here):  
  
Slash The Ironman: New reviewer! Welcome, and thanks for the review!  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Everybody loves Carlie....must resist reader pressure to make her party member.... I'm flattered how you always go to the trouble to pick out your favourite lines, makes me feel very much rewarded. Hawk just is hot. I don't think the way I write him has anything to do with it. At least, that is my excuse for how much I idolize him in this fic. (Scratches head). How about that, Rogue IS winning (just). Are you sure you're not cheating, Rosa?  
  
ChibiCharizard: My God, we HAVE summed up Carlie in one sentence. How very frightening..... I did like WotH (still haven't moved off my lazy hide to actually review it yet.... I'm getting there, really, I am!..... No one believes me, do they?) and hope you keep writing yourself! Thanks for the review! Your vote has been counted (but not twice, though that would encourage the number of reviews probably.)  
  
Truewind: Hello! I was reading up on 'Seeds of Mana' and you said this section made you feel guilty in your own fic! LOL! I didn't expect that! Go read Seeds of Mana, everyone, get Truewind to update (free plug!) Interesting point about Angela and moral questions and all that, I hadn't really considered some of those things but in retrospect it is true. Thanks for your votes, and your review.  
  
Wingnut: I'll take Minerva's votes to heart, tell her hara-kiri and/or murder won't be necessary, there'll be no outfit/hairstyle changing in this fic (unless someone decides to shave someone else's head for a practical joke or something). Okay, starting to run. Thanks for your review everyone! (?- I still haven't quite figured that one out...)  
  
Staci/Nadia: Woohoo, you registered! Congrats! Hopefully we can yet convert you into a Hawk/Angela fan, if not, you have ages before you probably have to worry about it too much. Carlie will be making many appearances, because she gets reviews and she's fun to write (grins). Thanks for the review and the votes - the E-Mail too! (Bows in gratitude).  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Thanks very much. Koren is coming up (Gee, with such an enthusiastic Koren fan I'm going to have to be careful here....) Always happy to hear from you! Hope you keep reading!  
  
Lez: Another new reviewer! Fair enough for the votes, they've been counted. Thanks for the review!  
  
Solarious: I'm not even going to try..... I was going to let Angela leave Carlie on the bridge, but not only would that kill off Carlie but I wanted to show that Angela does still have a good side.... somewhere.... I disagree, according to the Australian Macquarie dictionary Angela IS promiscuous! (As I write her, anyway: immoral, sensual, careless and lustful were some of the synonyms.) I don't think I'm ever going to figure out how to count your votes in there.... ooooh, headache, I think the reviewers are conspiring against me.... (Begins to pack bags as haunted by the sound of growing rabites...) Thanks for the review!  
  
Wow, that was a long response to the reviewers section again, sorry about that! Hope you enjoy the chapter!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 13 - Chasing the Dwarf in a Skull Hat  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
No one was quite sure what to think about Watts when they finally found him.  
  
For one, even though Watts was a dwarf like the rest of them, he seemed to be carrying an awful lot of equipment, weapons, gunpowder and other curious items with him. For another, he was wearing a skull as a hat. These things alone were enough to make them think that Watts's sanity was just a bit questionable. Of course, when they recounted things their own sanity was beginning to sound worrisome - Angela wondered, if she and her mother ever got back onto speaking terms (speaking terms being where her mother would refrain from killing her without due good reason), whether the Queen of Reason would really believe that her daughter had taken up companionship with a sweet but somewhat dim-witted Knight, along with a ladies' man wanna- be thief and the three of them who under the direction of a glowing insect were on a quest to save the world whilst being dogged by a young, cute, scary child who wielded a morningstar and claimed she was fifteen. Come to think of it, it had been a pretty exciting couple of days.  
  
"Um, so you're Watts," Angela said stupidly, still somewhat in shock that their wild goose chase had ended and they had actually found the dwarf they were looking for, even managing to lose Carlie in the process.  
  
"Yes, I am Watts. Is there any way I can help you, humans?" he said.  
  
Duran was peering intently at Watts's hat. "Isn't that a skull?"  
  
Watts was obviously a very patient character - they'd been repeating this conversation more-or-less for the past few minutes. "Yes it is."  
  
"What's it doing on your head?"  
  
"It's a hat."  
  
"Pretty dorky," Hawk commented.  
  
Duran looked as though he wanted to disagree. "In some societies I'm sure wearing skulls as hats is considered to be quite a status symbol."  
  
"Or maybe just fashion-challenged," Hawk suggested.  
  
"Well, it is a little weird," Duran conceded.  
  
"Nor does it seem mentally healthy," the thief added.  
  
Angela, not having the apparent saint-like patience of Watts, finally snapped. "WILL YOU SHUT UP! WE HAVE A MISSION HERE IN CASE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN!" Too late she recalled that she was supposed to be flirting, not yelling at the two men and waving her staff around maniacally, but couldn't take it back now. It really was harder than it had at first seemed.  
  
All three males stopped, stared and blinked at the Princess's outburst.  
  
Finally, Hawk said, "But Angie, I was thinking you'd look so good in it."  
  
THUNK!  
  
Moments later, Hawk was massaging his skull and checking to make sure nothing had broken. Lucky for him the Princess was trying to make her staff last so it didn't wind up in splinters again. "That was a compliment! Gee, you overract! Angie, have you ever thought about anger management classes?"  
  
"How dare you imply I have a problem with anger management? HOLY BALL!"  
  
Whilst Angela proceeded to attempt to beat the living daylights out of the Navarrian in the background, Duran decided that Watts's hat wasn't that interesting after all and maybe it was time to get on with the sub-mission - his home town of Forcena was, after all, about to be invaded. "Watts, sir, we're looking for some gunpowder and we're told you have some."  
  
"Sure do!" Watts said, obviously happy to finally be getting somewhere. "How about I sell it to you for 5000 gold pieces?"  
  
That was enough to distract even Angela from attempting to beat Hawk within an inch of his life for suggesting she had a problem with anger. "5000 gold pieces! You must be joking! My mother's royal wardrobe doesn't cost 5000 gold pieces!"  
  
Watts didn't seem unnerved by the fact that the magician who had no problems beating up her ally moments ago was now directing her negative emotional attention on to him. Skull hats obviously also gave people attitude along with being a great conversation starter. "Sorry, but the price is set."  
  
"Even the best gunpowder you can buy in the underworld doesn't cost half of what you're asking," Hawk said, reappearing from the shadows, all better thanks to a little bit of Wisp's influence.  
  
"And how, pray tell, do you know that?" Angela asked.  
  
"My dearest Angie, I thought by now you would have realised a man in a position such as mine occasionally has to procure such ingredients," Hawk said charmingly.  
  
"Hey! I'm not YOUR anything!" Angela was about to bring her staff around again to reinforce that statement, but Hawk had obviously taken enough punishment for the day and disappeared from her side, reappearing on the other side of Duran. Angela wondered if maybe in another universe these interactions could pass as flirting, because she sure as hell wasn't doing a good job at even working up the will to be trying any of her regular methods with Hawk thus far.  
  
Watts was busy scratching his head. "You don't say? Well, I want to stay competitive, so my final offer will be 3000 gold pieces. What do you say?"  
  
Duran put a hand over his face in a gesture of despair. "I haven't even seen 3000 gold pieces in my LIFE before. Princess?"  
  
"It's Angela, Duran, please just call me Angela. And no, I'm not carrying that kind of cash. If I was I wouldn't have to be relying on this moron's thieving habits," she said, jerking a thumb in the thief's general direction.  
  
"It appears we have a dilemma," Hawk announced needlessly. "We can't afford your price, Watts my friend, but we NEED that gunpowder."  
  
Angela began to feel slightly nervous. "Hawk, you aren't thinking...."  
  
Watts appeared deep in thought. "Well, I suppose you do have a problem then, don't you?" Another typical heartless shopkeeper, Angela bemoaned to herself. They were everywhere! Whatever happened to goodwill and charity?  
  
Suddenly, the earth started shaking again. Duran, Hawk and Angela didn't bother moving, because it seemed like the cavern they were in was more stable than the tunnel they had left behind. Watts, though, appeared scared witless, yelled something about Gnome, and ran out of the cavern much faster than one would expect for someone carrying so much equipment and with such short legs.  
  
"Hey, wait!" Angela called, making after him but having to stop lest she trip as their entire world vibrated. Once the shaking had abated, they were left in the semi-dark cavern - thanks to Watts's flaming torch he had dropped in his earthquake-induced panic not completely dark - alone and unsure what to do next.  
  
Angela sighed to herself. "Well, look's like he's gone. What do we do now?"  
  
Hawk picked up the flaming torch and held it high. "We follow him, of course."  
  
"I don't think he was interested in selling us the gunpowder," Duran remarked on the obvious.  
  
"Who said he had to be interested in selling it to us?" the thief grinned at them, eyes gleaming in the firelight.  
  
Pausing, Angela asked suspciously, "You're not thinking of stealing it from him, are you?"  
  
"Elementary, my dear Angie. He has the goods, we don't have the money, we need the product, what else are we going to do?"  
  
Even the amiable Duran seemed conflicted over this one. "I'm not so sure if that's a good idea... I mean, this is more than money for food and an inn."  
  
"Duran, Duran," Hawk admonished. "We're doing this for an incredibly noble cause - to save Forcena! I think we can be excused of it this time. And besides, if you're really that concerned, we can pay him back later."  
  
The Knight appeared convinced, and Angela, as much as she hated to admit even to herself that she agreed with the debonair thief, was compelled by his logic as well. No doubt the Fairy would normally have had some words about deciding upon this course of action, but after given the chance to seek refuge in Duran's head once again from her duties as a lamp, she stubbornly refused to reappear until they were in a better-lit place. Apparently for now the flaming torch would just have to suffice.  
  
"Fine then," Angela grumbled, "Lead the way, Hawk. Let's go find Watts."  
  
Flashing a smile at her, the Navarrian turned and began walking in the direction they'd seen the dwarf run in. As soon as they reached the next cavern, they were beset upon by zombies, but after all their practice in the Cave of Waterfalls they made short work of them, speedily following in the tracks of an obviously hurried Watts. The dwarf obviously was short enough to miss to attention of the undead, too, the lucky bugger.  
  
It was probably a good thing Hawk was tracking the crazy dwarf, because as they made their way from cavern to cavern Angela became hopelessly lost, Duran so much so that he was just focusing on killing zombies rather than even bothering to pay attention to any landmarks - not that there were any. If they never caught up to Watts, it wasn't hard to imagine that they could die without ever finding their way out of the maze.  
  
"So," the Princess said conversationally in a quiet spell as they made their way to the next cavern. "How exactly do you plan to steal his gunpowder from him? What are you going to do? Mug an innocent little dwarf?"  
  
Hawk tapped his head mockingly. "As nice an idea that is, anyone can knock a little guy over to steal his bag. I'd like to think I have more finnesse."  
  
"You talk about it like it's an art," Angela scoffed, "You're just stealing."  
  
"Nay, a successful thief does treat his trade like an art. How do you think I lived to such an old age in the thieves' guild if I wasn't successful? If I was useless I'd have starved to death on the streets years ago and you wouldn't be enjoying my lovely company right now," he lectured her, wagging a finger for emphasis.  
  
"You still didn't answer my question."  
  
"Ah, I think that's him up ahead!" Hawk announced cheerfully, ignoring the question, probably on purpose.  
  
So it was. It was hard to miss anyone who walked around wearing a skull hat after all. "Hey, Watts!" Duran called out ahead of them. "Hmm, he doesn't seem too happy to see us."  
  
Duran apparently had a penchant for stating the obvious that Angela was going to have to learn to love. "Apparently not. You there Watts! Don't you know it's rude to take off like that when people are talking to you?! I don't care if there was an earthquake!"  
  
"Run for it!" the dwarf was hollering at them as they drew closer. The trio became aware of a now-familiar slight rumbling beneath their feet. "Jeweleater will- AHHHH!" That was all they were going to get out of the dwarf as he came running towards them, past them, and into the next cavern, nearly knocking over Hawk in the process.  
  
"What's his problem?" Angela asked irritably.  
  
"Maybe it's that," Duran suggested, pointing at the approaching large anteater-like creature, gnashing its teeth and pawing the ground menacingly.  
  
Hawk let out a low whistle. "Maybe. I guess this is Jeweleater. You think it's friendly?"  
  
Angela picked up a rock off the ground and threw it at the creature. Its head snapped up and it caught the stone in its mouth. There was a loud crunching as it chewed the rock and swallowed, then growled deep in its throat.  
  
"I use my amazing deductive powers to say no," Angela announced.  
  
"No choice but to kill it then!" Duran proclaimed, drawing his sword and advancing slowly on the creature. Hawk quickly moved to cover him.  
  
Jeweleater seemed to disregard them, though, charging straight at the Princess instead. "Eeeek! Why is it coming after me?!" She turned and ran, acutely aware of the giant rock-eating mammal thundering after her.  
  
"Good work, Angie! Keep it distracted!" Hawk called.  
  
"Why do I always have to distract it?!" she yelled back as she was cornered against the cave wall. Duran was trying to get close enough to strike with his sword, Hawk approaching once again from the other side in the classic pincer attack.  
  
"Because you're the girl!"  
  
"WHAT? I'll show you!" Angela was not going to be the damsel in distress for Hawk, plans of seduction aside. Jeweleater was right in her face, just about close enough to bite off her head if it so chose to - something the creature seemed to be considering most seriously. Holding out her staff, she called up Wisp's magic. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
Jeweleater shrieked as it was hit in the face at close range with exploding balls of light magic. It pawed at the ground, and twisted around, confused, burned and temporarily blinded. Duran used this moment to leap in and strike at one of its rear legs, further immobolizing the creature.  
  
"Duran!" Hawk called, whilst Jeweleater yowled in pain. The Knight nodded, and Hawk ran over and gave him a leg up so the swordsman could get on to the monster's back. The thief scratched up one of Jeweleater's forelegs to stop it from throwing the Forcenan off as he clambered up to the creature's head.  
  
"Duran, be careful!" Angela called in concern, though probably unnecessary - if there was one thing Duran could do well, it was swordfight.  
  
With a mighty war cry that was probably more dramatic than it needed to be, Duran plunged his sword deep into the skull of Jeweleater. It thrashed and cried uselessly for another moment more before it finally succumbed to a most definitely fatal wound and slumped to the ground, breathing its last.  
  
After a moment, Duran pulled his sword free and leapt back to the ground.  
  
"And that," he said, "Is that."  
  
"Good work!" Angela applauded, refraining from hugging him this time in order to salvage what little credibility or dignity she had remaining.  
  
"All these big huge monsters we've been seeing, what do they all mean? Zombies and everything else aside, that's the second monstrosity we've fought in less than a week," Hawk mused, less elated about their sound victory.  
  
Cue Watts. "Every thousand years bad things start to happen. Jeweleater being born is a sign that the times are changing once again," the dwarf said, coming from the cavern behind them, apparently quite confident now the way was safe once again.  
  
"Yeeeks, where did you come from, you're nearly as bad as Hawk! Don't sneak up like that!" Angela said, panting from surprise.  
  
Watss tipped his skull hat at the Princess. "Sorry there, miss. I'm much indebted to the lot of you for killing Jeweleater for us. I think you deserve some sort of reward." His eyes lit up in classic 'I-just-had-an- idea' fashion. "I know - how about if I give you that gunpowder you wanted for free?"  
  
Hawk seemed to be rummaging for something, pulling out a small bag a moment later. "You don't mean this gunpowder, do you?"  
  
The dwarf frowned. "Why, yes, but how did you-?"  
  
"Ahahahaha, never mind that," Angela said, hurrying the conversation along whilst casting the thief a glance so murderous it could have just about lopped his head off, which he of course responded to with his usual cheery grin. "So why were you so interested in coming here if you couldn't defeat Jeweleater on your own?"  
  
"I was looking for Gnome," he admitted.  
  
"And you found him!" another voice added a moment later.  
  
They all looked around for the source of the voice, and moments later coming bounding from the shadows was a gnome-like creature, though he seemed slightly ethereal and possessed of an incredible energy that made him bounce from foot to foot even more exictedly than Carlie ever did. The Fairy, obviously immediately recognising this as Gnome, finally emerged from hiding in Duran's head.  
  
"Hiya! I'm Gnome! It's good to see you again, Watts! Oh, and the Fairy is here too! Hiya Fairy!"  
  
"It's good to see you too, Gnome," the Fairy greeted happily.  
  
"I was worried," Watts informed the Elemental. "When Jeweleater appeared and I didn't hear from you...."  
  
"Yeah, that Jeweleater had me locked away. Thanks to these guys, though, I'm free now! Great, huh?" The cheerful Elemental jumped over and began vigorously shaking Duran's hand. "The Fairy's told me all about you guys with your big quest to save the world! I'm going to help! I'll start by giving the pretty lady over there the benefit of my magic! Great, huh?"  
  
"When did the Fairy tell you all that?" Angela asked, even as she felt the thrill of being imbued with Gnome's magic.  
  
"She has that mental link thing going, you know. It's a great trick, I'm still working on perfecting mine. Elementals and deities only, you know! Well then, you had best hurry along to Forcena, we can't protect the Mana Stone if that place gets invaded! Hurry hurry hurry! Nice to see you again, Watts!" With that dramatic speech, Gnome jumped up into the air and disappeared once again, leaving the Mana Heroes to stand there in shock and blink stupidly. Somehow, even after meeting Wisp..... Angela wasn't sure, but she'd kind of expected the Elementals to be a little more, well.... dignified.  
  
"We'd better hurry to Forcena, like he said," Duran advised them, his anxiety obvious. "We've taken too long already. Altena will move quickly."  
  
Angela felt uncomfortable at hearing her own kingdom being referred to as a threat in that manner, but stubbornly pushed it aside. "I only hope that crazy guy Bon Voyage is ready for us."  
  
"If you're in such a rush, I'll show you a shortcut out of the caves. Follow me," Watts said. He paused, though, before leading off. "By the way, mister, how exactly DID you get a hold of that gunpowder?"  
  
_____________________  
  
Please don't forget to review. 


	14. Bon Voyage Bon Voyage

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. See the last chapter as well (which incidentally also refers you to chapter one.)  
  
Author's note: Sorry about the huge delay on this chapter, but now that I'm all moved in to my new place hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly. Here's your next (albeit pathetic) almost all new (containing 40% recycled material) chapter at last! Throw a parade! Coffee, anyone?  
  
Son of Author's Note: The results are in! (I think!) They are: Duran: Paladin (By a landslide) Angela: Magus (I think. There were votes everywhere.) Hawk: Rogue, but only just. Actually, it was a tie between that and Nightblade, but given Rosa doesn't let a review slip by without talking about Rogue, I gave Rogue the balance. So there you go. I hope my arithmetic wasn't screwed up, but it should be okay. Simply addition, how wrong could I be? (On second thought, don't answer that question.)  
  
Response to Reviewers! (it keeps growing and growing....):  
  
ChibiCharizard: A couple of people liked that line.... You can never watch too much cheesy anime! Thanks very much for your review - and look, I finally reviewed WotH (though it was a pretty pathetic review compared to your literary achievements). Oh well, we can't all be good at everything (or in my case quite often, nothing.)  
  
Monica: Thanks for your votes (I can't remember if I remembered to respond to you last chapter). Though I never thought the French and Japanese words for friend were the same. (Let's see.... Mon Ami.... Tomodachi..... maybe with a really strong Irish accent.....). Hey, wait, are you Wingnut? (Reels from confusion.)  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Wooh! Someone had too much sugar again. Thanks very much for your (longest yet) review!  
  
Slash The Ironman: Thanx.  
  
Lez: This is just a guess, but you must be an Angela fan.  
  
Staci/Nadia: Poor Angela indeed. Yes, thank Laine for getting out there and writing the first decent Hawk/Angela coupling fic! (If there are other good ones out there, forgive my ignorance.) I am afraid all of your questions will just have to wait until the chapters are posted (a fancy way of saying I haven't made up my mind yet). Sorry about the wait, and thank you for the review!  
  
Wingnut: Poor Min. Oooh, you have a fic posted? I must go check that out. Plug away, I know I do.  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: (takes out notepad) Okay, Koren has blue eyes, if I make him a jackass Kurai will kill me, everyone must bow to him. Got it. Watch out for that stuff called 'DayQuell' I think it has speed in it (I got addicted to it when I was last in the states.) Actually, 'NightQuell' isn't much better (My seatmate on the plane was amazed I could sleep in that position. Sedatives, mate, sedatives.) Other than that, please, take all the meds you want. Thanks for your review.  
  
Solarious: Gee, maybe YOU should be writing this fic you have so many good ideas. Rule No.1, Solarious: NEVER BE FUNNIER THAN THE AUTHOR! It's insulting to all the other reviewers out there. Nah, just kidding, thanks for all the ideas, I did my best to make them into a reality for you. You can just mentally add that other bit in the last chapter, though, okay? Save me the trouble. And I am not interested in what your rabites are up to, I am more interested in catching the next rocket off this planet, given that a bunch of stupid Mana Heroes came and killed my Mana Beast just as it was reaching maturity, darn it! I am defenceless! I will attempt to go check out that site sometime, thanks for your review!  
  
I would also like to apologise for a slightly shorter chapter (you have been spoilt with big long ones recently.) Thanks for your reviews everyone! I bow to you! (Bows.) Coffee, anyone?  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 14 - Bon Voyage Bon Voyage  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The trip back along the Not-so-Golden Road to Maia was comparatively quick, given that they had pretty much cleared the path of just about anything that moved on their way to find the dwarves. It looked to be sometime early afternoon, though it was slightly cloudy so who really knew - how long had they been awake? Come to think of it, Angela was having a tough time remembering when she had her last meal. Duran insisted that there was no time to rest, though, if they wanted to get to Forcena before Altena attacked.  
  
Angela had spent most of the boring walk, given the lack of appropriate targets, arguing with the Fairy and Hawk. One such argument with Hawk had now reached a critical point.  
  
"Hawk?" she said sweetly. The Navarrian began to look slightly nervous, recognising the tone to not always mean what it sounded like.  
  
"Angie?"  
  
"DIAMOND MISSILE!"  
  
Angela was thrilled at the sight of her newest spell, courtesy of one Gnome, Elemental of Earth. Shards of crystal rained down from the sky upon the startled and less-impressed thief. "Ack!"  
  
Duran looked back briefly - the Fairy was riding on his shoulder for a while, seeing as there weren't any immediate threats to her safety. "Hurry it up, you two! Princess, what are you doing?"  
  
"Oh, never mind, Duran, I'm just testing out my new magic!" Angela assured him, waving her hand cheerily.  
  
"Testing? You're trying to kill me!" the thief panted from behind her.  
  
Angela turned back around and growled when a slightly out-of-breath Hawk appeared unharmed safely out of range. How had he dodged that? "How fast are you anyway?"  
  
"That was harsh, even for you, Angie! I could have died!"  
  
"Better you dead than me bored," she said with a shrug, calmly following Duran again.  
  
Wait a minute, she was supposed to be flirting with Hawk, not trying to kill him. It was so hard to remember! Turning around once again, she added in a sugary voice, "You are okay, aren't you? I don't know what I'd do if anything actually happened to you!"  
  
The thief looked shocked, then just downright puzzled. "Angie? Are you feeling alright?" Even Duran had stopped and was giving her a concerned look. The Fairy just raised an eyebrow - the little insect with all of her mind tricks probably already knew what was going on.  
  
Darn it, this was much harder than she thought. She was still dealing with her natural reaction to insult Hawk at every opportunity whilst trying to flirt with him. Why was flirting so hard all of sudden? Not to mention so unconvincing?  
  
Hurrying over, she grabbed onto his arm and held it close, half-dragging him along with her. "Of course I am! Come on, you've been appointed as my personal bodyguard for the rest of the walk to Maia!"  
  
Hawk looked completely perplexed at the complete one-eighty her attitude had taken in less than ten seconds. Angela noticed Duran watching them at length as they led the way. Excellent, it was working.  
  
"You know, I wouldn't mind escorting a lovely lady such as yourself," Hawk said smoothly, apparently having wrested control of his temporarily rattled wits once again, "But we're already back at Maia."  
  
There was the road leading into town. The walk HAD gone fast. Dropping his arm, she said, "Oh. So we are. We'll, let's hurry on to Bon Voyage's then!"  
  
She was aware of Duran giving Hawk a questioning look, who just shrugged. Well, the groundwork had been laid - she only hoped it hadn't been TOO transparent. Her complete lack of success with Duran thus far had made her wonder if her flirting techniques had become rusty somewhere along the line. Though really, she should probably have waited for a few minutes AFTER she'd tried to kill the thief with Gnome's magic before putting the intial groundwork moves on him.  
  
They did spare a few minutes, at Duran's anxiety, to grab a quick bite to eat at the inn - fortunately this time everyone gave them a wide berth. After that, it was straight to Bon Voyage's.  
  
No one bothered saying anything when Hawk opened the door wide again - whether or not it had actually been locked was always subject to question but neither Angela nor Duran probably wanted to dwell on that thought for too long. Striding into the house with only the confidence a Knight and a Princess and.... well, that other person.... could possess, Angela quickly located Bon Voyage taking a nap in the corner. Before she could move over and wake the lazy fat man up, though, up popped that woman again, who latched on to Duran's arm with a quickness that rivalled the magician's.  
  
"I hear that you're the Knight that defeated all those men in town a few days ago! What can I do to help you? Would you like something to drink?"  
  
Angela mentally counted in her head to stop herself wrenching Duran away from the wench's grip too obviously. She had to remember this was Duran after all - he still appeared as blissfully unaware of the woman clutching on to his arm as he had when Angela had done the same thing back at the weapon shop all that time ago in Jad. "What was your name, miss?"  
  
Then again, it never was uplifting to see someone fail just in the same way she did. Painful reminders were what kept her awake at night.  
  
She smiled dazzingly, still making eyes at the handsome Knight. Somewhere in the background, Angela heard Hawk muttering something about the girls always going for guys in uniform. "Merci. My name is Merci. And what is yours, bold warrior?"  
  
By the Goddess, the Princess sure hoped she didn't sound so pathetic when SHE flirted.  
  
'You shouldn't curse something so stupid using the Mana Goddess, Angela,' the Fairy said crossly inside her head.  
  
'Would you prefer I cursed something stupid using the names of the God- Beasts?' Angela replied sarcastically, then added as an afterthought, 'When did you get back into my head anyway?! You were with Duran just a couple of minutes ago!'  
  
No response. Angela guessed the irritating little insect had intended on hitching a free ride without the magician knowing about it, but had accidentally opened her big mouth and given herself away. Really, how could an emissary of the Mana Goddess be so stupid?!  
  
"Thank you, Merci," Duran was saying politely, smiling kindly - Angela could just see that woman melting into a puddle at the sight of it. How dare she?! Duran was HERS! "But we're here to see Bon Voyage."  
  
Merci dropped his arm disappointedly, much to Angela's elation - she didn't have to interfere after all. "Oh, my brother. Go ahead then." She slunk dejectly into the kitchen. Now there was a woman who gave up the fight quickly. Only perseverance would win Duran over! - Angela hoped, anyway.  
  
That issue nicely dealt with and tucked away, the Princess fianlly went over and kicked the bed Bon Voyage was snoring on. "You! Wake up!"  
  
After a snort and a painfully long moment of confused garbles and disorientation, Bon Voyage finally blinked and looked at them. "How can I help you nice young people?"  
  
"We got the gunpowder you sent us away for, now send us to Forcena! Hurry it up! Get with the program!" Angela announced, tapping her foot impatiently as the short man attempted to wake up properly.  
  
Blank look. "Who are you again?"  
  
Even Hawk was beginning to look annoyed. "We came here wanting some way to get to Forcena, remember? You sent us to get you gunpowder so your invention could send us there!"  
  
Bon Voyage was looking at Angela curiously. "Oh, I think I remember. Miss, the brothel is another block down."  
  
Hawk was quick to pick the staff out of Angela's grasp before she could beat the tar out of the eccentric inventor. In its place, Angela mentally added Bon Voyage to her list of People She Was Going To Kill Someday, along with Carlie, Koren, Hawk, and the shopkeeper in Astoria who had ripped her off with a cheap cane. In that order.  
  
"No, sir," Duran said as patiently as possible whilst Angela fumed. "A couple of days ago we came here, remember? We brought the gunpowder like you asked!"  
  
"Oh, yes, yes!" Bon Voyage exclaimed, jumping up and down.... then paused. "Um, what was the gunpowder going to be used for?"  
  
Hawk placed the staff back in Angela's hand and let her loose.  
  
"You moron! How dare you forget!" she yelled. However, before she could connect, Bon Voyage, possibly due to his life flashing by his beady little eyes, suddenly was blessed with perfect recollection.  
  
"Oh, that's right! I remember! Come on out back, it's ready! I'll have you folks to Forcena in no time!"  
  
Disappointed, Angela lowered her staff reluctantly as the three of them followed the senile man out the back where he'd been working on that contraption beforehand. It vaguely resembled a giant.... well, the Princess didn't want to try and imagine how it might work, because already her senses were screaming at her that it wasn't going to be safe. She really ought to start listening to omens, they'd all been right so far. Like that mirror she'd broken the day before her mother had tried to kill her, and that ladder she'd walked under, and.... oh, this explained so many things!  
  
They all stood there for a moment, Bon Voyage beaming in pride at his invention. After an uncomfortable extended silence, Hawk cleared his throat and asked, "Now what?"  
  
Bon Voyage jumped up and down excitedly - it was hard to beleive he'd been in a deep sleep mere minutes ago. "Get in, of course! Get in!"  
  
The three Mana heroes looks somewhat doubtfully at the contraption, but instead of asking questions like they probably should have, dutifully obeyed. Hawk leapt in nimbly, Angela crawling in after and Duran getting in last. Once all three of them were in there, though, it was kind of cramped. And whilst Angela didn't really mind getting that view of Duran, it was still a bit.....  
  
"This is quite cozy, isn't it?" Duran commented diplomatically.  
  
"Hawk," Angela warned, "That better not be your hand I feel there."  
  
".....Of course not, Angie."  
  
"What is Bon Voyage doing out there, anyway?!" Angela complained, trying to shift into a more comfortable position, but failing miserably. How was this going to get them to Forcena?  
  
"Bon Voyage! Fire in the hole!" Bon Voyage yelled from outside.  
  
"What?" Angela asked.  
  
"What's he doing?" Duran asked, now concerned.  
  
"Um, guys," Hawk said nervously, "I don't want to alarm anyone or anything but-"  
  
The thief never had the chance to finish his sentence as a sudden explosion blasted them out of the cannon.  
  
The world was spinning and flying past and all upside down and it was just too much for Angela's mind to bear. Though for one minute she did think she saw in the far distance what might have been Altena, as well an interesting design in a field of corn that looked a bit like a giant rabite, the next thing she could comprehend was a grassy plain, rushing up way too fast for comfort.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  
  
THUD.  
  
Darkness. For quite a while. Then the Princess also had a nice dream about locking Koren in a room with Carlie for a week.  
  
Just as Koren was banging at the door begging her for mercy, her senses began to clear, and the magician felt consciousness properly returning to her. The first thing she noticed was the nice breeze. The second thing she noticed was that she was lying on something soft.  
  
Forcing open her eyes, Angela saw Duran looking at her with a somewhat quizzical expression on his face. She looked down. There was Hawk, blinking groggily, then grinning at her when he saw their compromising position. Oh, THAT was what Duran was looking at.  
  
"Why, Angie, I knew you really did love me after all," Hawk said charmingly, despite the fact that he was half wheezing from her sprawled across him.  
  
The Fairy made an appearance for the sole purpose of looking at Angela witheringly.  
  
Finally recollecting her thoughts, Angela immediately leapt off the thief and started waving her hands in protest. "We weren't doing anything! It was completely innocent, I swear it!"  
  
"You seem to be trying to hide the fact that we're lovers, Angie."  
  
"HAWK! You're not helping!"  
  
Duran just shrugged, and stretched, testing to make sure everything was working. "Are you okay? That was one hell of a ride."  
  
Actually, how HAD they come here? Bon Voyage had shot them out of a cannon and then..... oh.  
  
Angela was convinced her mind was working particularly slowly today. "Jeez, I can't believe I wasn't just killed!"  
  
"You? What about ME?" Hawk protested. "I cushioned your landing!"  
  
"You are not me, therefore you are irrelevant," Angela retorted, once again completely forgetting her plans to seduce the thief in order to make Duran jealous. "Just be thankful you're alive, though after THAT I really don't know how."  
  
"The laws of physics have been bent, my friends. Fortune smiles on us once again," Hawk intoned gratefully.  
  
"You mean Wisp saved your sorry hides," The Fairy corrected. Wisp appeared for a moment, did a little dance as if for victory, then vanished again.  
  
"Um, thanks then I guess," Angela said, stretching. Even with Wisp's help, it did still kind of hurt...... "So, where are we?"  
  
Duran stood, checked his sword first, then pointed. "Forcena's right over there....."  
  
They all fell silent, though, as they saw the smoke beginning to rise on the horizon. Angela began to feel sick.  
  
"We're too late. It's already begun....."  
  
_____________________  
  
Please don't forget to review. Nyar har har, cliffhangerish! My revenge on all of you other authors and YOUR damn cliffhangers! 


	15. We'll Save Forcena, but Not For Free

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter more for violence and even a serious paragraph or two!  
  
Author's note: There is no point to the author's note today, other than to fill up space, make the chapter look longer than it really is, and overall waste your time. Thanks for reading?  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Lez: Riiiiiight.  
  
Lj7: I'm sorry, but your vote came too late to be counted (even though it did technically tip the balance), since it would make me look terribly wishy-washy to the reviewers if I changed the final classes after announcing them. I would like to say, though, that I'm not necessarily keeping within the specs of the techs or magic characters can use according to class changes (except for the major ones, like say Angela wouldn't be using both Ancient and Rainbow, that's just silly, but minors might very wind up being a free-for-all) so you might still get to see some of Hawk's cooler Nightblade techs. (This is mostly because I have trouble remembering which class changes have which techniques). Anyhow, I thank you for your review all the same, your comments are much appreciated!  
  
Staci/Nadia: You are welcome for the mental image, as for the corn field with giant rabite crop circles in it, I can't do anything to help you out there, I live too far away from any decent-sized farms. I can't quite figure out how Gnome could have helped the landing, either. (Dirt is hard no matter how you do it. Please, enlighten me, it could come in handy later.) Happy if you liked it, thanks for the review!  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Thanks for the review and try to stay off the sugar.  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: I had a feeling you'd be happy about that one. (Do I get some cake? I'm starving.) What flattery for that one line! I'll be sure to go around to all the forums and look for that signature now. You were grounded? Why? (Probably picking locks, given your Hawk fan status - was I right, huh, was I was I was I?) Carlie is not in this chapter, she may or may not appear in the next one. Actually, in answer to the Carlie question, she does get some more screen time due to her popularity, so there you go, reviewers, you actually DO have some influence on the story. (Is everyone fulfilled now?) Glad to see you're back reviewing after being grounded, your presence was sorely missed.  
  
Slash the Ironman: Well, no, it was a pretty pathetic cliffhanger in my opinion (especially given that we all already know what's going to wind up happening eventually anyway), but I felt like covering my bases. Is that a challenge to give you a REAL cliffhanger, though? (I can think up some doozies....)  
  
Solarious: A lot of people liked those parts (scratches head in bewilderment.) Thanks for the big huge review as always. (Sighs with relief, checking to make sure all the rabite corpses are really dead.) Yes, I will join you. Our pets will not rest in peace until they have been properly avenged.  
  
Wingnut: I don't know if you personally have any cliffhangers in your fics, it was just kind of general revenge thing if you must know, kind of like the megalomaniacs who like to blow up entire cities instead of just hunting down the one guy who cut off their arm. Hi Minerva! You make your appearance at last! (Or did I just rudely ignore you last time?) Thanks for the review! (I should probably get out a thesaurus at some point too. I say that constantly, it seems.)  
  
ChibiCharizard: Yes. You have great literary achievements. At least, that's what I call them. I think every coherent review is a great literary achievement. Okay, I'll try and keep it low on the cliffhangers, though really, this wasn't much of a cliffhanger. Always thrilled to hear from you.  
  
That's everyone! Thanks for your reviews everybody! I live for feedback! I'm a review vampire! Bwa ha ha hahahahahah! REVIEWS.....MUST HAVE MORE.... MORE REVIEWS..... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH....... MORE..... (We'd like to interrupt this fanfic to apologise for the breakdown in the author's sanity. She is currently undergoing treatment and upon conclusion of said treatment will be releasing a new trilogy: 'Carlie meets the Mana Heroes', 'Carlie gets a chainsaw', and 'Carlie takes over the world'. We are sure you will enjoy them. Now, stop reading this drivel and get on to the chapter already!)  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 15 - We'll Save Forcena, but Not For Free  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The small group stood staring in horror at the smoke rising on the horizon. Angela, for perhaps the third time in her life (the other two times being when she first met Duran), found herself speechless. Duran was gritting his teeth in anger. Hawk remained impassive, expression carefully controlled.  
  
The Knight was the first to act. "We have to go help!" He drew his sword, a fierce light that didn't exactly make the Princess feel comfortable glinting in his eyes.  
  
Angela was less certain. "Duran, what can three semi-competant semi- warriors do in a war? I mean, you're a really good swordsman and all, and I can use magic now, and Hawk can... well...."  
  
The thief in question scowled. "Given how many zombies and rabites and other weird vegetation I've killed, I'd think you'd take me seriously by now."  
  
Angela rolled her eyes. "Well, no offense or anything Hawk, but what are you going to do? Pickpocket them to death?"  
  
Duran was never easily swayed by logic and now was no different. "I'v bested Knights twice my rank, and you dealt with a whole squandron of Altenan soliders even before you received Gnome's power, Princess! With Hawk's fighting skills as well, we might stand a chance of at least making it to the throne room in order to save King Richard! As a Knight of Forcena, it's my duty! This is my home! I will not let it fall to ashes!"  
  
There was a long silence. Finally, Angela conceded, "Well, I don't think anyone would have the heart to say no after that heartfelt dramatic speech. Let's go die, then."  
  
"You're such an optimist, Angela," The Fairy muttered sarcastically, sitting atop Duran's helmet so she could see the scene for herself.  
  
"Pessimists are never surprised NOR disappointed, though, are they?" the Princess retorted, gripping her cane. "Lead the way, Duran."  
  
"Right." The Knight began running along the path to Forcena, sword at the ready. The gate was unguarded, the city deserted, so they charged on through unchallenged until they reached the castle. A tumbleweed passed through the scene, Angela only pausing in her run to stop and wonder if tumbleweeds actually grew in the fields around Forcena. It seemed like more a desert thing.  
  
They were stopped dead in their tracks again though as they were faced with the carnage inside the gates of the castle. Angela, in a panic, ran up to one of the Altenan soldiers, lying bleeding from sword wounds on the ground. Nearby lay the charred corpse of what had to have been her Forcenan opponent.  
  
The solider opened her eyes as Angela approached. "Princess Angela..... what are you-? ......did you really... commit treason?" she coughed out.  
  
Surprised to be asked, the Princess of Altena was suddenly touched that even though she couldn't care less about what went on in the army corps, there were still some soldiers who chose to be loyal to her rather than the now-questionable Queen of Reason. "Never. I would never do that to Altena."  
  
The soldier nodded imperceptibly. "I see..... we gave our lives away for a liar....."  
  
Voice thick with barely suppressed emotion, Angela asked, "Is my mother here? Did she command this attack?"  
  
"No..... Koren....."  
  
Angela jerked back at the name. Duran came running. "What?" he demanded. "The Red Wizard is here?! He's surely after the King!"  
  
"Angie," Hawk said softly. "We can't spend any more time here. You can't let Koren succeed and tarnish your kingdom's name like that."  
  
Since when had that insensitive moron cared about that kind of thing? The Princess only wished she at least knew the soldier's name, but now probably wasn't the time to start asking. "I'm sorry, but I have to leave. May the Goddess watch over you."  
  
"I.... am only sorry," she wheezed out, "....that I'll never..... get to see you rule....."  
  
Standing and blinking back unshed tears at the words, Angela turned her back, keeping her head low. Fires still burned around them, turning the sky black with smoke. "Damn you, Koren..... you will pay for this..... "  
  
Duran waited until Angela took her first step to start leading the way again. They began to walk faster and faster as they still encountered no opposition, corpses littering the trail through the palace, mostly Knights of Forcena. Duran's expression grew angrier and angrier as he progressed, so by the the time they encountered the first of the 'enemy' soldiers, neither thief nor magician could react fast enough to stop the swordsman from taking them down. Angela merely flinched as her fellow countrywomen were cut down by the enraged Knight. To see her beloved Duran in such a rage.... she couldn't really blame the guy, his home city was in the process of being torched and she didn't even want to try and imagine how many of his friends and family might have been killed by Altena's soldiers, but even so..... she was torn between her infatuation for the Knight and her loyalty to her country, however twisted that country had become. Well, okay, her infatuation for Duran outshone even saving the world, so maybe it wasn't as much of a struggle as she thought, but still.... Why was Koren doing this? He had always been a surely and mysterious character in the court, and she never liked him much, not to mention she questioned the fashion sense of anyone who walked around wearing a scarlet cape everywhere.....  
  
Clenching her teeth and thinking of how many different and painful ways she was going to kill Koren for this (letting Carlie at him still ranking as her favourite, though shooting him out of Bon Voyage's cannon now ranked as a close second), Angela strode on determinedly. With her now heightened magical senses, she could feel him now, a bright star amongst all the lesser magical presences of Altena's soldiers - something which was making her nervous. Even with Wisp and Gnome on her side, how could she possibly take on the Wizard of the Red Lotus? Even though she was already stronger than the average footsoldier, she was still woefully a beginner, and Koren had been terrorizing the countryside (well, not really, but it fit well with her mental image at the moment) for years! It really was suicide! She was too young and sexy to die!  
  
"That's it! That's the throne room!" Duran called behind him as he dealt with the last of his opposition. Angela and Hawk just followed mutedly, Hawk only moving once in order to fling out some throwing stars to pin another of Altena's soldiers coming up behind them to a wall. They were vaugely aware of her throwing vaugely familiar-sounding insults at their backs. Seems Angela's bad influence had spread to the army corps more than what anyone thought.  
  
"You should really join a circus," Angela whispered the thief's ear, taking some comfort in the familiarity of the jab. Hawk didn't even bother smirking. "I mean, that's just downright talent." She couldn't believe herself. She was trying to flirt in the middle of a battlefield! The distraction was much needed to keep her composure, but even so! Maybe it was about time they all booked themselves into a psychiatrist.  
  
This was the moment of truth. They arrived at the grand doors to the throne room. Angela knew with conviction that Koren was on the other side, with at least half a dozen surviving lesser soldiers.  
  
"Let's go," Angela said.  
  
Duran ran up and kicked the door open, causing it to swing wide and crash off its hinges he used so much power. Koren and the remaining Altenans turned in surprise as the dust cleared to reveal Duran standing there, sword poised with Hawk and Angela flanking him. Well, Koren didn't look quite as surprised so much as vaguely annoyed. The footsoldiers, though, looked like they were about to faint - whether it was from Duran's astonishingly good looks or scary arrival, though, she wasn't sure.  
  
If there was something else other than swordfighting Duran was good at, it was Dramatic Entries.  
  
"Oh look, Hawk, it's a meeting of the new community leaders," he announced, lacing his voice with a sarcasm Angela didn't think the sweet Knight was capable of.  
  
"Do we get to vote? I just LOVE to vote," the thief replied, grinning and brandishing his twin kodachi.  
  
Koren's cold blue eyes flickered over them, pausing briefly when he noticed Angela there. "What is this? More uninvited guests?"  
  
"Koren," Angela said, with about the same level of distaste in her voice that she saved for speaking of fungi and dirt under someone's fingernails. "Still wearing that same garish red cape, I see."  
  
"Princess. And I see you are still wearing a scrap of fabric for a dress." He looked behind to the waiting soldiers. Apparently that was all the introduction speech-making time they were going to get. "What are you waiting for? Kill them."  
  
Angela could have spent some time hoping that there was doubt about killing their former princess in the eyes of the Altenan soldiers, but she wasn't ever going to risk her life finding out. "I don't think so! DIAMOND MISSILE!"  
  
Angela's magic attack took out half of the unexpecting mages, and Duran and Hawk quickly took on the rest, being aided by the arrival of two Knights with golden armour. After a painfully short (albeit messy) battle, Koren was left alone.  
  
"At last," Duran said, stepping forward and holding his sword at the ready, "I will be given my chance to defeat you."  
  
The Wizard raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Who are you again?"  
  
"Duran of Forcena!" Duran didn't even notice the implied insult. Neither Angela or Hawk were interested in telling him, either.  
  
Looking as though he had the temporary urge to scratch his head in a puzzlement at the Knight's somewhat-obliviousness, he finally said, "I highly doubt your skill level could have possibly improved that much for me to consider you even more than a passing amusement. However, you have made yourself an obstacle...."  
  
"Not so fast, Koren!" Angela announced, holding her staff at the ready. "Don't forget about sweet lil ol' me!"  
  
Koren looked even more dubious. "It's very rude to interrupt people in the middle of their execution speech, Princess."  
  
Angela curbed her fury with practiced ease, after years of having to bite her tongue around the Red Wizard. "Don't take me so lightly, Koren. I'm not the sweet little girl I was a week or two ago! You saw what my magic did to your loyal soliders!"  
  
The Wizard looked over at the soliders, and blinked in mock surprise. "YOU did that? I thought it was someone else. Even so, is that supposed to impress me?"  
  
Years of bottled up fury were about to be unleashed in the usual trademark Angela fashion, but Hawk decided to interfere before either Duran or Angela could make their move. "Koren, isn't it? I'd be choosing my battles wisely if I were you. Do you really want to fight me, a Knight of Forcena bent on your death, a pissed-off and unpredictably violent magic-wielding Princess not to mention King Richard himself and those two Knights of Gold sitting at your back?"  
  
This, at least, seemed to be a proposition that Koren was thinking about taking seriously. Scowling, he muttered, "The Mana Stone will be ours. You have merely been spared another day. I will be back."  
  
With that, the wizard muttered a few phrases of magic and vanished.  
  
"Hey! Wait! Come back here coward!" Angela yelled into the thin air.  
  
"Somehow," Hawk consoled her, "I think he might be back in Altena right now, Angie, and probably won't be able to hear you."  
  
"Egotistical, self-centered pompous....," Angela muttered.  
  
Hawk drew back. "Hey! That's uncalled for! I didn't say ANYTHING!"  
  
Angela blinked. "Oh no, I wasn't talking about you." Seems she'd conditioned Hawk by now. No wonder her brief foray into flirtation with him earlier had been met by such incredulity.  
  
There was a cough behind them. Whirling around in case of another opponent, Angela was momentarily surprised to see King Richard sitting there on the throne, obviously Koren's target. She'd been so busy focusing on the surly wizard she hadn't even noticed he was there. She must have been getting rusty, I mean, how did someone miss and entire King when they entered the room?  
  
Duran immediately got down on to one knee, whilst Angela, being a Princess and all, didn't bother and neither did Hawk - he probably didn't even have the the etiquette, or maybe he was just rude. "I am very much indebted to you and your friends, Duran. Mind giving me an introduction?"  
  
For a King, he seemed to be taking this all awfully casually, considering his throne room was still bearing the marks of battle - most conspicious of all being Angela's diamond missiles embedded in the ground here and there. The Princess fervently hoped they weren't going to be made to pay for the damage. "Of course," Duran replied, keeping his head low, "May I introduce Hawk of the Navarre Thieves Guild and Princess Angela of Altena."  
  
"Hey," Hawk said, waving cheerily.  
  
"Hi there!" Angela added.  
  
"You two are shameless," the Fairy said, whispering from behind Angela's hair, for once not seeking refuge in her actual head, though it didn't really make that much difference. "You're talking to the King of Forcena, not the local innkeeper."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Angela whispered back. The only people she was going to ever bother showing any respect to was Duran and her mother. And maybe the Mana Goddess if they ever actually made it to the Mana Holyland to meet her.  
  
If King Richard was perturbed by their casual responses, he didn't show it. "I thank you for your assistance - it came just in time. I fear that even the Knights of Gold alone were not enough to defeat the Wizard of the Red Lotus."  
  
"Do you get a reward?" Angela asked.  
  
"Angela!" The Fairy hissed.  
  
"Hey," Hawk protested, "I think it's a fair question!"  
  
"You would," the Princess retorted. Duran apparently didn't have much to say about this, though did look like he was about to give a speech on how it was simply his duty, and they needed no reward.  
  
"We earned this one! This has nothing to do with being a thief! Why, if we rescue Forcena for free, what's to say a whole bunch of other threatened nations won't take advantage of our generosity?!"  
  
"Hmm, you have a point," Angela agreed. "Three semi-competant semi- warriors can do quite a bit after all."  
  
King Richard coughed. "I suppose we can give you some monetary reimbursal. However, back to what I was saying, why the Queen of Reason would want to attack Forcena is unknown to me."  
  
The Fairy, for some reason, decided to reveal herself for once, leaving her hiding place from behind Angela's hair. "That, your highness, is easy to answer. They were after the Mana Stone."  
  
King Richard again didn't seem as surprised at seeing a Fairy as one would expect anyone to be. Instead, he closed his eyes. "I see.... it's been many years since there has been a Fairy sent from the Mana Holyland. The Mana Stones must indeed be in danger. We will have to bolster our defences if this is the case. Tell me, have you chosen Duran to be the Mana Knight?"  
  
"Yes," the Fairy responded, seeming puzzled by how much King Richard seemed to know so much about Mana.  
  
"A wise choice. If he serves half as well as his father, he will be a fine Mana Knight," the monarch said thoughtfully, stroking his beard.  
  
Duran appeared humbled by this praise. 'Thank you, sir! I do not deserve such kind words!"  
  
Waving a hand, King Richard counselled, "At ease, Duran. The Fairy from the Mana Holyland may have already told you this, but if Altena is after these Mana Stones, not just Gnome's stone is in danger. There are eight Mana Stones; Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Light, Darkness, Moon and Tree."  
  
"We've already found Earth and Light," Angela added helpfully.  
  
"I see. You should try to find Wind, next, then," King Richard suggested. "Jinn, the Elemental of the Wind, will help in finding the other stones. Once you've received Jinn's power, return here."  
  
"Not asking why," Angela said. "I don't want to hang around here any longer just in case there's any other Altenan soldiers happy to take my head off."  
  
"That was what else I wanted to ask, actually," King Richard intercepted before Angela could even think of running off. "If you really are the Princess of Altena, why were they going to kill you?"  
  
"Oh? My mother Queen Valda ordered them to. I supposedly committed treason, but I didn't do anything!" Angela attempted to keep from losing her composure in front of royalty. Forcena was one of the few Kingdoms that she felt were important enough to maybe show their monarchs more than a sheer facade of respect, so flying into an emotional breakdown in front of said monarch just wouldn't do.  
  
When their casual responses, the prospect of his own death, or the floating Fairy emerging from nowhere hadn't perturbed him, this had. "What? Valda - Valda had a daughter?!"  
  
"Hey, King Richard! I don't really like how you're using my mother's first name like that," Angela said warningly. Was he gaping? And maybe blushing?  
  
"You're about the right age, could it really be?" he muttered to himself.  
  
"Hey, what are you talking about now? Why is that so important?" Angela asked. Hawk and the Fairy were both smirking and trying to hide it, never a good sign of anything.  
  
"Um, never mind, Princess Angela. I have to talk to my advisors about this....," King Richard stood and hurried from the throne room off into one of the side corridors, followed by the Knights of Gold. He exited, leaving them standing there, but not before he stopped and took another long look at Angela, shaking his head in amazement.  
  
A long, uncomfortable silence ensued.  
  
"I don't even want to know," Angela said, gripping her staff. Her imagination was running wild, now. "But I think all the same I'm going to ask when we come back here."  
  
Duran dusted himself off. "Well, we'd better be off to Rolante then." The entire second half of the conversation apparently didn't disturb him at all. Maybe everyone had simply been rendered shock-proof along the way somewhere.  
  
"Um, how?" Angela asked.  
  
"Byzel has ships going to Palo, which is the closest port to Rolante. We'll go there."  
  
"Aw man," Hawk said, running a hand through his violet hair tiredly. "There are going to be so many people looking to kill me in that place it's not even funny."  
  
"I think it's hilarious," Angela added helpfully. No, wait, flirting opportunity! She ran over and latched onto Hawk's arm, which just earned her a raised eyebrow from the thief. "Don't worry so much! Duran and I will protect you! Now smile, you look much better when you smile you know!"  
  
Long silence. Duran was looking at her strangely again. Score! Dragging Hawk along with her before he could say anything else that might ruin her success by inciting her to kill him, Angela led the way out of the castle. "Well, until we find a way to get to Byzel, let's get something to eat! And maybe go to an inn, too, I'm looking forward to a real night's sleep! Come to think of it, when DID we last sleep?"  
  
"You mean, together?" Hawk commented with a grin next to her.  
  
'Must not kill him, must not kill him', Angela chanted to herself. Time to be imaginative! Turn this into an opportunity, this was what she was best at!  
  
"Anytime, Hawk," she said with a wink, then dropped his arm and skipped on ahead.  
  
Both Duran and Hawk were left standing there speechless.  
  
Duran was the first to speak. "What just happened?"  
  
Hawk pinched himself. "I can't believe I'm still alive. I thought for sure she'd try and kill me for that one."  
  
The Fairy floated back to sit on Hawk's shoulder, having abandoned Angela to her own devices. "The Mana Goddess must smile on you or something."  
  
_____________________  
  
Tada! Please don't forget to review. 


	16. Bon Jour, Fortune Tellers, and Carlie, O...

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Nothing to warn about in this chapter, except please, don't look at a computer for eight hours straight without break. Not only do you start to get a little hungry and thirsty after a while, but argh, my eyes!  
  
Author's note: Wow, today's chapter is a whopper! Not in the sense that we have any plot movement, it's mostly just length and nothing terribly new other than that. I'll have to ask you to bear with me as usual whilst I try and sort my poor demented little brain out. This is very much a filler chapter (as are all chapters in this fic, when you think about it) but hope you enjoy it all the same.  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Ff.net surfer: The days of SD3 do seem a long, long time ago - but we persevere! I wasn't really aiming for a novelization (given my complete disregard for accuracy) but shucks, it DOES look like that's what it's turning into, doesn't it? Thanks for your review, and welcome!  
  
Staci/Nadia: If I only I could use this dialogue in real life! Thanks for the high praise, this unworthy one is humbled greatly. I personally found the scene with the Altenan solider a little too sappy for my taste, but you do have a thing for such things, ne? Glad you liked it (I was serious for like two paragraphs, guys! Let's see if I can pull that off again!) Hmmm.... Hawk doesn't get to handle the Black Market of Byzel actually for another couple of chapters, but I have BIG plans for that. Oh, look, I've created an anti-climax for myself. Oh well. I'll take into consideration your idea for 'Carlie gets a Chainsaw', but at the tragic rate this fic is going you may well die of old age before then. Thanks for your review!  
  
Bakea/Henrika Fan: Another new reviewer! G'day! Wow, thanks! Will do!  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Your tips helped me immensely, I thank you for it. (I sigh in the knowledge my life is now safe from maniacal Koren fan). Thank you!  
  
Solarious: I'm seriously starting to think you'd do a better job of writing this fic than I would! Thanks very much for the ideas, and I guess I can't avoid that chapter on 'All Princesses are Violent and Temperamental'. (Grabs notepad and starts jotting ideas down.) I will say in advance, though, that since I yielded to reader wishes and had Carlie make an appearance in..... well, I won't say.... that she will not be on the Ghost Ship. I have plans for the Ghost Ship! (If I can remember them.) Honestly, though, I think your evil side has gone from being healthily megalomaniacal to downright disturbing. Don't take over the world behind our backs, okay? (At least, without inviting me along for the ride first.)  
  
Lj7: I guess it did. Thanks!  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: I agree! (This is my fallback statement when I don't know what else to say). -Sighs- I guess we can't do anything about the sugar. Thanks for your review though!  
  
Wingnut: And the thesaurus makes its first appearance..... If nothing else will work on Min, you can borrow Carlie for a couple of chapters (holds out a squirming screamingly bundle of pink fluff and blue eyes and blonde hair.) Thanks for your review!  
  
Cookie Pixie: I am seriously jealous of Angela's one-liners myself, it's so unfair! (Wait.... I write this.) It's OK that you haven't been reviewing (sniff - just because YOU have a life) but know that you were missed. Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Truewind: Ta muchly! If this unworthy one has made you laugh, then I am happy! Go forth! Write a Wanderer fic! And please give me the heads up when you do. Cheers, and thanks very much for your high praise and review! Always happy to hear from you!  
  
Slash the Ironman: Natch. Okay then. Thanks for your review!  
  
That's everyone! Thanks for all the reviews as usual (I only keep writing because of you guys, I would have given up ages ago if it weren't for you!) and by all means, I hope you enjoy this chapter, as eerily repetitive it is.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 16 - Bon Jour, Fortune Tellers, and Carlie, Oh My!  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The three and a half weary travellers made their way back out of the castle to head into town, still having considerable difficulty figuring out how exactly they were going to get to Byzel, seeing as as far as they knew, the handy little bridge over the Land of Crevasse was still blown to smithereens, beyond even the capacity of the supposed cleaning fairies to fix.  
  
"Couldn't you do that neat little trick you used to get us across at the Cave of Waterfalls, insect?" Angela asked.  
  
"I am not an insect! I am an emissary of the Mana Goddess! And no, I can't, it's way too huge a distance to do that for! If I was that strong I wouldn't need your help in saving Mana!" the Fairy hotly replied.  
  
"'Scuse me, miss," an extra voice said, interrupting their conversation. The Fairy shrieked, then disappeared into Duran's head again before she could be seen. "I think I might have the solution to your problem!"  
  
Angela turned around and standing there, was Bon Voyage.  
  
Three seconds for recognition to set in.  
  
Four seconds for complex thought processes to take place.  
  
One-quarter second to instigate reaction. "YOU IDIOT! WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?! HOLY BALL!"  
  
Once the light had faded, Angela blinked. She had.... missed?  
  
Well, no, Hawk had pushed the poor unfortunate soul out of harm's way, but Bon Voyage was still a little singed.  
  
"Okay, Bon Voyage, what's your explanation?" Angela demanded.  
  
The roly poly man coughed, dusting off his clothes, before plastering an idiotic grin right back on to his face. "Bon Voyage? I'm not Bon Voyage! I'm his brother, Bon Jour!"  
  
The magician faltered. "Bon.... Jour?"  
  
Nodding his affirmation, the look-alike jumped up and down in excitement. Brother? They ought to have been twins! "That's right! I heard of your quest from the King, and since my brother's invention was a success he sent me instructions to make one myself! I will send you to Byzel!"  
  
Silence. A solution to their problems had presented itself. But did Bon Voyage take them for fools? None of them were quite sure they wanted to try and live through that again, and furthermore, whether they'd be so lucky next time.  
  
Each of them exchanged a look, but finally, lack of choice prevailed. Even Duran looked less than optimistic with the idea. "Fine then. When can we go?"  
  
If Bon Jour was surprised at their acceptance, he didn't show it. To be honest with herself, ANGELA was surprised at their acceptance, though it did make her feel a little less guilty about trying to kill Bon Jour after mistaking him for Bon Voyage.  
  
"It'll take me about a day to set it up! Come back here tomorrow afternoon!" With that, Bon Jour raced off, not waiting around to hear what else they had to say about the evil transportation device.  
  
"Well, here we go again, I guess," Angela sighed, then threw her arms up into the air in a gesture of defeat. That was the thirty-sixth sign in less than a week that the Mana Goddess had it in for her.  
  
"I guess we'd better go find an inn, then," Duran suggested. "We've been going for a couple of days now, and the adrenaline rush is starting to give out."  
  
Angela frowned at this statement, though. "Go find an inn? I thought you grew up in Forcena, Duran! Why don't you just stay with your family?" This was an ideal opportunity to dig up some dirt on the object of her affection, after all.  
  
Duran looked hedgy at this statement. "It'd just be simpler to go stay at an inn, okay? Besides, even though the town was mostly undamaged, everyone is probably still a little spooked. I don't want to cause anyone any grief."  
  
An answer that told her nothing. Who would have thought her handsome yet simple Knight would have it in him? As tired as she was, Angela felt she didn't have the energy to wring an answer out of him, and thus decided to just let it slide.... for now.  
  
Duran, being a local, knew exactly where the inn was, and fortunate for them he knew the innkeeper personally, and when they told him that they'd just saved Forcena he was quite happy to let them stay the night for free. Bonus! This hero stuff wasn't so bad after all! No wonder Duran liked being a Knight.  
  
Too exhausted to even bother warning Hawk away from her whilst sleeping, Angela scarfed down a quick meal, then collapsed into bed, and dreamt more sweet dreams of Duran, using magic, and killing Koren and or Carlie, preferably at the same time. Many blissful hours later, the sun was rising and with it, the obviously morning-person Duran.  
  
"Come on, Princess! It's morning!"  
  
"Mmph. Go away," Angela muttered into her pillow as the cheery Knight adjusted his armour for the day, and sat there shining his sword as though it were a perfectly normal thing to do at this hour of the morning. She'd noticed that he'd been up early at Wendel and Maia, but this eerie consistency of getting up with the sun was becoming annoying.  
  
"What about you, Hawk?" Duran asked, shifting his attention to jabbing the apparently still-sleeping thief with his foot from where he sat. A low growl indicated Angela wasn't the only one who preferred to sleep in.  
  
"What's your problem, people?" The Fairy announced, emerging from Duran's head, seeing an opportune time to annoy the princess and thief. "If you're going to be the champions of Mana you can't laze around!"  
  
"Easy for you to say," Angela groaned, rolling over, and thinking she must look like a mess in front of Duran, but then, he'd already seen her covered with guano, mud and cobwebs so bed-hair probably wouldn't change his opinion of her that drastically. "You spend all day resting in people's heads, while WE'RE doing all the fighting and walking and everything else."  
  
From his bundle of blankets, Hawk muttered, "Thieves stay up all night and sleep during the day. Come back some time this afternoon."  
  
Angela threw a pillow at him. "No way! If I have to get up, you do too!" She struggled out of bed, muscles sore from all the fighting they'd done the previous couple of days. Bon Voyage's cannon probably hadn't helped either. Duran must not be human.  
  
As if to confirm her suspicions, he smiled cheerily and stood, re-sheathing his now once-again shiny sword. "Great! If you're up, then we can go have breakfast and get started on the day!"  
  
By now Hawk had managed to drag himself from bed as well, leaving the two to stare as the Knight began to make his way out into the common area of the inn. You would never believe that this was a man who had just fought off a bunch of Altenan soldiers invading his home town the day before after fighting off Jeweleater and being shot out of a cannon. Angela STILL felt like she'd been run over by a truck, and she had to have had at least twelve hours sleep!  
  
"Maybe the Fairy is giving him some extra Mana power or something," Angela said dully, trying to fix her hair to make herself presentable before she attempted to face sunlight.  
  
"There must be some perks to the job, I guess," Hawk muttered, then made his way to the bathhouse to freshen up. Angela regarded him as he turned to leave. She had better start thinking up some more good flirting lines she could use on the ladies' man wanna-be if she wanted to keep her plan in motion. Later, she figured. Today, she decided, would be a day mostly for digging up dirt on her TRUE target. She was in Duran's hometown! She had until this afternoon to interrogate the Knight for tidbits of information that might prove useful in the long run!  
  
This thought in mind giving her the willpower to make her own way to the bathhouse - making sure to choose a different one to Hawk, there was no point in flirting with him if Duran wasn't around to see it, after all. Once she decided she was looking pretty enough to face the day, Angela strode out into the main area where Duran had ordered breakfast for all of them - most likely wasting half of the reward money one of King Richard's Knights had given them on their way out of the castle. Travelling was so darn expensive! All the stingy shopkeepers around the coutryside didn't help, either.  
  
Hawk was looking vaguely more awake by now, but Duran was far too cheerful for comfort. Angela sat down and ate her breakfast quickly, then began to plan the day's activities - they only had several hours in Forcena, and she was going to make them count! "So, Duran, what are we doing today?"  
  
The Knight seemed confused by this statement. "We're leaving for Byzel."  
  
Rolling her eyes, Angela persisted, "I mean, BEFORE that! That weirdo Bon Jour said the cannon wouldn't be set up until this afternoon! Where's the places to go in Forcena?! I want to see your hometown! I bet you do too, didn't you get homesick while you were away?"  
  
Duran was still vaguely befuddled at this idea. He'd probably had just been planning to ditch them to train with some of his old Knight buddies or something until it was time to go. "Uh, we can just walk around the town, I guess."  
  
Angela had an inkling it was the best response she was going to get. "Fine then, if everyone's finished breakfast, then we'll go!" Hawk protested briefly at being forced to face sunlight so early, but Angela's sweet tone of voice and firm grip on his arm brought him along. Even if this was going to be a Duran fact-gathering day, she just might get some opportunities to rouse a little jealousy along the way. Her only problem, of course, was if there were some ex-girlfriends of Duran hanging around the place, but given how oblivious to the attentions of the opposite sex Duran was, she probably didn't have anything to worry about.  
  
That thought was quickly forgotten, though, as they began to walk into the town square. You wouldn't believe that this was a town that had nearly been invaded and burned to the ground the day before - even though the Altenan forces had mostly concentrated on the castle. Flowers were blooming, kids were running around playing - what was WRONG with these people? Angela was pretty sure if Altena had been invaded in such a manner she, her mother, that bastard Koren, and half of the armed guard would be on a crisis management for weeks after the event! Hopefully people in the castle were taking it a bit more seriously, though after meeting King Richard the day before, the Princess of Altena wasn't too sure about that one, either.  
  
Duran walked around, showing them some houses, and telling them about some of his friends that lived there when they weren't working as guards in the castle. They then proceeded to get some of the history of each of the monuments in the town. Duran was obviously a big fan of Forcena - he knew EVERYTHING anyone would want to know, but in more cases not want to know, about Forcena.  
  
"This monument was put up but King Richard's grandfather, for Taurus, the Knight of Gold who gave his life to protect the King. All of the Knights of Gold who die protecting their King are given a monument, and it is the highest honour any Knight of Forcena can wish for," Duran said, with obvious hero-worship shining in his eyes. "This monument over here is for- "  
  
Angela's mind wandered as Duran continued his monlogue. It was nice to see the Knight's hometown, though, and she could see where he got a lot of his charm from. She hadn't yet heard Duran say anything about his own home, though, and that's what she was hanging on for. Briefly distracted, she looked back at Hawk, who seemed to be carrying.... several garden gnomes?  
  
"Hawk, where did you get those from?" Angela asked, blanching as she imagined the answer.  
  
"Three guesses, Angie."  
  
The Fairy, also apparently not caring too much about the intimate local history of Forcena, emerged from Duran's head to float over and sit on the magician's shoulder. "Hawk, they're not even worth anything," the Fairy scolded.  
  
"Says you! If I can ship these back to Navarre, they'll sell for a fortune!"  
  
Angela tapped her foot impatiently, before ordering, "Hawk, put the garden gnomes down. They'd never survive the cannon trip."  
  
"Oh yeah, I hadn't thought about that." With a sigh, the thief dumped the four garden gnomes he'd been carrying - Angela stared, wondering how on earth he could have acquired so many bulky packages without her noticing - into someone's garden, and continued strolling along nonchalently. "This is just so boring, y'know?"  
  
"Don't say that! I'm sure this is all very important to Duran!" Actually, she noticed Duran had stopped his speech and was speeding up his walk. Frowning, this was when Angela noticed that they were standing next to another house, and out the front.....  
  
"Hey, Duran!" She called. "Didn't you say at some point that your father's name was Loki?"  
  
"Yes," he muttered, still walking.  
  
"Then this must be his monument!" Angela said in awe. Hawk became interested in the conversation again. Duran, on the other hand, was suddenly immensely interested in the grass at his feet.  
  
"He must have been very noble," the thief intoned quietly.  
  
"I don't remember too much of him," Duran admitted, reluctantly coming back and standing there with him. "He left on a mission when I was just a child, and my mother became ill while he was away. When she heard news of his death, it was the final stroke and she died. My sister Wendy and I were raised by my Aunt Stella."  
  
Angela felt awkward. She wasn't used to having to dole out sympathy for people. "I'm sorry."  
  
The swordsman was if nothing else stoic, though. He shrugged. "Like I said, I don't really remember them too much. I am very fond of my aunt, though. What about you, Princess?"  
  
"Hm? Oh, I was just raised by my mother. I never had a father." Hawk and the Fairy were grinning again. What WAS that about? Did they know something she didn't? She'd have to beat the truth out of Hawk later. "Hey, wait, you're just changing the subject! Why is this monument here, and why didn't you stop for it?"  
  
Duran fidgeted awkwardly. "They put the more recent monuments of the Knights of Gold in front of their homes."  
  
"Then.... this is your home, Duran? Why didn't you say so? Come on, invite us in!" Angela implored. A chance to meet Duran's family! Sometimes the best way to get to a guy was through the favour of his family! Besides, maybe she and Wendy could talk and she could get some more useful dirt on the Knight. Without any further invitation, the brazen Princess strode up to the front door, only to be stopped by Duran, who ran and stood in front of it.  
  
"Please Princess," he pleaded. "I don't want to step foot back in here until I've finished my quest and killed the Red Wizard."  
  
Angela was stunned speechless. "But... won't your Aunt and sister be worried about you?"  
  
Shaking his head forcefully, the Knight replied, "Stella knows that I won't be back until I've defeated the Red Wizard. You understand, don't you, Princess? You didn't want to return to Altena until you had learnt magic!"  
  
Finally, giving in, Angela flicked her hair to side and strolled back to where Hawk was waiting patiently. "Fine then. But I have to say, your room must be really messy if you're going to this level to make us not see it!"  
  
Duran looked perplexed by this statement; Hawk just grinned. "So what now?" the Princess continued. "Y'know, seeing as I've been deprived of my chance to see Duran's room."  
  
"Well... I know, we could see the Fortune Teller! Her shop isn't far from here, and she gives out sample fortunes for free!"  
  
"For free?" Angela shrieked happily, her instinct for shopping taking over. "I'm there!"  
  
Under the Princess's prodding, the Knight proceeded to lead the way to a little upstairs store above a shop. Upstairs, a withered old lady quelled Angela's brief fears of what Duran's relationship with the fortune teller was in order to get free fortunes.  
  
"Hello," the old lady murmured.  
  
"Eeek, the antique speaks!" Angela squawked.  
  
"That's so rude, Angie," Hawk murmured.  
  
Scowling, the Princess retorted, "You can talk to me about being rude once you stop trying to figure out the street value of her crystal ball."  
  
"Would you like me to tell your fortune? It's free! Let's see now," the old lady began to ramble. She waved her hands around in a series of movements Angela mostly considered to be epileptic and arthritic-related, but Duran was mesmerized and Hawk had moved on to casing the wall hangings. The psychic squinted into the crystal ball, humming, then made a couple of confused noises.  
  
"What is this? I- I cannot tell your future! This is unheard of!"  
  
"Yeah right! You rip-off fake! Give us our money back!" Angela demanded.  
  
"Angie, it was free to begin with," Hawk whispered.  
  
"I don't care! I demand satisifaction!"  
  
The old lady though, was looking greatly disturbed. "This has never happened to me before! What does this mean? Why is your future clouded?"  
  
For some obscure reason the Fairy decided to reveal herself without due course once again. "Oh, don't be worried about that, miss," she assured the old woman. "Once a Fairy of the Mana Holyland enters someone's life, their future becomes uncertain!"  
  
"If you read that back to yourself," Hawk murmured in Angela's ear, "It sounds like a threat."  
  
"Stop creeping me out," she hissed back, jabbing him playfully in the ribs, hoping Duran was paying attention again. The thief just smirked.  
  
The fortune teller, on the other hand, looked like she was about to suffer a major coronary occulsion. "Goddess save me! A Fairy just came from that man's head!"  
  
Well, it was about time SOMEBODY freaked out when the Fairy made her oh-so- dramatic appearance. It seemed to Angela that maybe the crazy old hag was actually one of the most sane people kicking around.  
  
"Fairy, you scared the old bag!" Angela scolded.  
  
The miniature deity looked immensely guilty. "I never seemed to bother anyone before."  
  
"Aside from me," the magician muttered under her breath.  
  
"I heard that!"  
  
"Perhaps it would be prudent to leave now, though, before we cause the old lady anymore grief?" Hawk suggested.  
  
Duran nodded his agreement, disappointedly leading the way out of the little upstairs shop, the Fairy quickly re-disappearing back into his head. Hawk thanked the woman, who must've been a bit crazy to begin with, Angela figured - running a shop that gave our free fortunes, where was the business sense? - so they probably hadn't done any PERMANENT damage to the poor withered old crone's psyche.  
  
"Forcena just might be fun after all," Angela chatted as they left that shop and continued walking in the general direction of the castle. They probably still had a little more time before they had to be back at the castle, and damned if she was going to waste it! "What else, Duran?"  
  
The Knight scratched his head in perplexity. "Well.... maybe.... the Library?"  
  
It didn't sound like much fun in the Princess's opinion, but maybe that was just borne of a general hatred of learning spawned from many wasted magic lessons. After an unanimous vote (unanimous in the fact that neither Angela nor Hawk bothered voting), they entered the Library of Forcena.  
  
"Wow.... books!" Angela proclaimed.  
  
"What did you expect in a Library, Angie, ice-cream?" Hawk asked.  
  
'Must not kill him, think of campaign....' Angela chanted in her head. Dang, she was getting rusty! Flirting never used to take this much effort! "Um.... You'll just have to take me out for ice-cream later then, Hawk? It's a deal, right?" Skipping off before the thief could ask any questions, Angela moved on to another part of the library, pretty sure she'd caught Duran's attention that time, and safe in the knowledge that there weren't any ice-cream shops in Forcena for Hawk to threaten her with.  
  
She wandered amongst the shelves, wondering what to do for a couple of minutes. Then, she was greeted with another fine opportunity to do some flirting. Duran was perusing the book shelves without much interest, but Hawk had picked one book off the shelf and was going through it studiously.  
  
Not terribly sure she wanted to know what a ladies' man wanna-be thief from the desert might consider entertaining reading material, Angela decided to risk it anyway. Running up behind him and peering over his shoulder, making sure her face was nice and close to his, she asked, "What'cha reading?"  
  
For some reason, this didn't perturb the thief in the slightest - she was starting to think that maybe the thief wasn't as knowledgeable in social areas as she'd first figured him to be. Either that, or he had nerves of steel. "It's a book on the Mana Stones and the God-Beasts," he replied. "I figured that if our mission to visit each of them, it couldn't hurt to know a little about them."  
  
The Fairy came out of nowhere, landing on Hawk's head happily, the first time she'd ever done so. "At last! Someone is taking this quest seriously and thinking ahead!"  
  
"For that you'd need a brain," Angela blanched, and withdrew, annoyed that her attempt had gone completely to waste - not only had she not managed to rattle Hawk, Duran was still wrapped up in..... whatever it was he was doing. Staring into space brooding seemed the most accurate description. She'd just have to try again later.  
  
Leaving the Navarrian to his quiet reading time - she was honestly surprised a street thief could read - the Princess began to stroll around in the hope of finding something a little more interesting to read.  
  
She turned the corner into the next aisle of books, and froze. No way..... it couldn't be.....  
  
Standing there, big blue eyes focused in concentration, a disturbingly familiar pink-clad child appeared to be attempting to read a magazine.  
  
How the hell had CARLIE made it Forcena? She was supposed to still be stuck with the dwarves back in the Land of Crevasse!  
  
Her natural instinct to run far, far, away, though, was temporarily overriden when Carlie began to attempt to read aloud. "W-O-N-D-E-R-B-R-"  
  
Rushing forward and yanking the magazine out of the child's arms, Angela yelled, "What the hell are you reading? WHAT? A XXX MAGAZINE? WHAT IS THIS DOING IN A LIBRARY?!"  
  
Carlie blinked when she realised she was no longer holding the magazine in her cute little hands. "Slutty girl?! Why you take Carlie's book away?"  
  
Shaking the magazine at the child, Angela began to say, "Listen up, Carlie, this magazine is for- huh?" She could have sworn the magazine had been in her hand a moment ago.  
  
Turning around, with Carlie's background happy cry of 'Pervert Man!', the magician fumed as she saw Hawk standing there staring at the magazine in one of his hands, eyebrow raised.  
  
"Ooooo," was his only comment.  
  
"YOU'RE SUCH A PERVERT! GET RID OF IT!" Snatching it back, Angela put it on the highest shelf.  
  
"Wasn't that you on the centerfold, Angie?" Hawk asked.  
  
He was probably just jerking her chain, but Angela decided to incinerate the magazine for good measure. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
Thus one of Forcena's books was reduced to dust. Hawk blinked. "I hope they don't bill us for that."  
  
Carlie had tears gathering in her eyes. "Why slutty girl break Carlie's book?"  
  
"Listen up, Carlie, that book is for perverts like Hawk! Not for kids, okay?!"  
  
"CARLIE NOT A KID! CARLIE TOLD YOU MANY TIMES!" With this, the child began to swing her morningstar around in no doubt another attempt to take the Princess's life for yet another slip of the tongue, but lucky for said Princess all the battles and travelling on the road had been good for her strength and reflexes, so the morningstar just demolished a book shelf instead.  
  
"Oh boy, you've done it now, Angie," Hawk said.  
  
They was a strangled cry on the side of the other book case as Carlie knocked another shelf over in her rage. Moments later, Duran shoved his way out from underneath the books using sheer strength.  
  
Carlie ceased her rampage immediately, just before Angela was considering utilising some of Gnome's power to stop the confrontation once and for all. "Friend Duran!"  
  
"What's Carlie doing here?" The Knight asked, seeming somewhat calm about the event.  
  
"I wish I knew," Angela replied, staff held ready just in case the temporary peace was broken again.  
  
An extra voice intruded on their conversation. "By the Goddess! Look at this mess! Get out, you hooligans! Get out!" A withered-looking old woman, possibly the twin sister of the Fortune Teller and presumably the librarian, waved a broom at them whilst agonising over the mess. They didn't waste any time leaving - though somehow, Carlie wound up coming with them. Unfortunate oversight on Angela's part.  
  
Once again safe from scary librarians, Carlie was busy latching on to Duran's leg. "Friend Duran! Carlie find you again at last! Carlie go with Friend Duran to find Heath!"  
  
Duran was visibly reluctant to say no seeing as the child still had a firm grip on her morningstar. "Carlie...."  
  
"Carlie so happy!"  
  
"It's time to go meet Bon Jour," Hawk pointed out.  
  
Thus, they somehow wound up trooping back towards the castle sqaure with a hyperactive chattering Carlie in tow. The child defied the laws of probability and physics and psychology and probably a lot of other things Angela hadn't even heard of. It was so annoying! WHy wouldn't she just go away?  
  
Bon Jour was putting the finishing touches on the cannon when they arrived. He was excited, and maybe even a little surprised, that they came.  
  
Wearily, Hawk and Duran climbed into the cannon. "Let's get this over with," the thief muttered. "C'mon, Angie, you get in last."  
  
"Carlie come too!"  
  
Bon Jour scratched his head in thought. "I'm sorry miss, but only three people can fit in at a time. But - I'll send you right after them, okay?"  
  
Carlie looked cross at the prospect, but agreed all the same.  
  
A way out had just presented itself. Angela ran over to the cannon. "Hey, Duran, have any money?"  
  
The Knight called back out, his voice slightly muffled; "Yes, just wait a minute... hey, where did it go?"  
  
A moment later, Hawk's arm held a small money pouch out of the cannon. "Here you go!"  
  
"How did you get that, Hawk?" Duran asked.  
  
"Thanks!" Angela said, grabbing the pouch and drawing Bon Jour off to the side. "Okay, Bon Jour, here's the deal. You send Carlie somewhere else after we're gone, you get this and no one needs to know, okay?"  
  
Bon Jour scratched his head. "Is this a bribe?"  
  
"YES! No words to the tiny terror, okay?"  
  
"Okay then," the roly poly man agreed, accepting the bag gleefully. Money talked, after all.  
  
"Thank you!" Angela called, then ran back over the cannon, clambering into it, bracing herself for the inevitable. It was the last of their reward money, leaving them more-or-less broke once again, but it was worth it to once again escape from Carlie.  
  
"See you soon, Slutty Girl!" Carlie called happily.  
  
"Not if I see you first," Angela muttered.  
  
"Bon Voyage!" Bon Jour called out.  
  
BOOM!  
  
There they went again.  
  
_____________________  
  
Does anyone else have an eerie sense of repetiton? Please don't forget to review. 


	17. The Black Market of Byzel

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. I guess I should warn people for the content of this chapter. I don't really know why, but what the hell.  
  
Author's note: I feel as though I'm always apologising, but I would like to say sorry all the same for the recent slackness in updating - University has been keeping me from writing stuff, but I'm hoping to still maintain updates about once a week. I know people are never interested in excuses, though, so just dock me my ten percent penalty and we'll all move on with our lives.  
  
Response to Reviewers! (We broke the 100-review barrier! I think we should throw a parade. Thanks guys!):  
  
Bittersweet: A new reviewer! Welcome! Thanks very much for the high praise, hope you keep reading!  
  
Solarious: Hello again! (Sweatdrops - have I really become so predictable?) Thanks as always for your review and all of your great ideas! I'll certainly have to consider that with Kevin, that's a good one, though I have finally managed to develop some other ideas for him. Not sure how he's going to work, but I must thank you again! (You have become a muse, how about that?)  
  
Truewind: Thanks for your review! And I do have another SD3 fic in the working, so I hope you'll like that one too! Keep writing your own stuff too! I love 'Seeds of Mana'! (Free plugs, free plugs for everyone!)  
  
Lj7: You should like this chapter, then.  
  
Ff.net surfer: Well, Angela is, Angela I guess. These characters are seriously writing themselves now (I no longer have any control..) The Black Market is everything in this chapter, I hope you enjoy it!  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Thanks for your double review! You're so nice, going to all the trouble to review every chapter! I am planning on doing the class changes on Rolante, though I doubt they'll be done in much detail (everyone's been there and done that to death already.) Reviewing in computer science, (Internet misue over here!) how flattering. I'm more interesting than a typing exercise! (Or whatever you do in computer science) Woohoo!  
  
Staci/Nadia: Congratulations! You were the 100th review! I would give you an award like a stuffed rabite or something, but I can't, so I guess you'll just have my undying gratitude, or something along the lines thereof. I too can't understand why people in Forcena went from being invaded to being a nice happy castle town so quickly, but then, maybe Squaresoft writers apply the same rules to fiction that we do. Anyhow, thanks very much for your long (and did I mention 100th?) review! Always great to hear from you!  
  
Wingnut: I will forge a big pointy stick with A NAIL IN IT so nyar! (I'm going to pay dearly for that one, I can tell). Wow, Minerva really is as invincible as I've heard. Thanks for your review, as always!  
  
Slash the Ironman: Glad you like it. Thanks!  
  
That's everyone! Thanks for all the reviews people! Enough of my pointless drivel, here's some more structured pointless drivel. Don't consume with toxins or pointy objects.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 17 - The Black Market of Byzel  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
THUD!  
  
Angela lay there for a moment, dazed but this time not unconscious, though she kind of wished she that she was. Apparently Bon Voyage's techniques were getting better because it didn't hurt quite as much this time. She was dimly aware of townspeople gathering around them.  
  
"I can't believe it! People falling out of the sky!"  
  
"Maybe they'll praise us as gods and give us lots of gold," Hawk suggested to the Princess, sitting up and dusting himself off, apparently unharmed. Duran opened his eyes and sat up himself. Once again they had defied physics and made it out alive.  
  
"Bon Voyage definitely needs to set up a customer complaint center," Angela groaned.  
  
"Well, technically we're not customers, he's giving us these so-called 'rides' for free," Hawk pointed out diplomatically.  
  
"So? We gave him that gunpowder that was worth about a lifetime of free rides!"  
  
"I think that, first chance we get, we need to find some alternative form of transportation," Duran added nethertheless. He arched his back and stretched, making sure that everything was still working.  
  
People were still gathered around them, muttering in awe at the people-who- fell-from-the-sky.  
  
"Nothing to see here, people, move along," Angela said, shooing away the crowd. "No, wait, you, stay. Is this Byzel?"  
  
"Yes miss," the old withered lady said, looking at the magician as though she were expecting lightning to strike her.  
  
"Angie, you should really stop picking on old ladies," Hawk lectured. "I could have told you this was Byzel."  
  
"Whatever," Angela said, waving off the grateful old woman, who no doubt wanted to go say some prayers - after all, three armed youths coming crashing in from the stratosphere was never a good sign of anything, except perhaps good rainfall in the spring. Even more so when they actually survived the fall thanks to some handy Elemental and Mana protection. Where was that nice Elemental and Mana protection when the Beastmen had pushed them off that cliff, though? Useless Fairy!  
  
Duran had apparently decided everything was still in working order and had, in typical Duran fashion, already moved directly on to the next order of business. "It'll probably take a couple of days by boat to get to Palo, so we should leave as soon as possible. Now, which way is the port?"  
  
Hawk, apparently familiar with Byzel, pointed the direction before Duran could take off and get himself, and likely them as well, hopelessly lost. Nodding positively to himself, the Knight began to lead the way, leaving Angela and Hawk to sort themselves out and hurry after him.  
  
Seeing another opportunity, the Princess latched onto the Navarrian's arm. "Ugh, Hawk, I'm kind of dizzy after that. Do you mind?"  
  
The thief arched an eyebrow, but obviously was still somewhat dazed after their whirlwind triphimself, so didn't say anything much on it. "Whatever."  
  
Happy at her success, Angela looped her arm through his, making sure Duran got a look. The Knight had a blank look on his face that the magician imaginatively labelled as jealousy, so there was another point for today.  
  
'You've just been shot out of a cannon and you're already all up and running around again! I'm glad I chose such hearty Mana heroes,' the Fairy quipped from inside Angela's head, apparently deciding not to make any comments on Angela's transparent flirting attempts.  
  
Angela was beginning to not even be surprised by the fact that the Fairy had decided to take a vacation inside of her head again. All the same, she pressed, 'Why don't you go inside Hawk's head for a change instead of mine if Duran is too boring for you?!'  
  
'Whilst he's not that bad, he's still a thief! Who knows what kind of a bad influence he might have on me?'  
  
'Believe me, NOTHING could make you more irritating that you already are!'  
  
'I resent that!'  
  
'Shut up, insect! We're on your stupid mission, what more you do you want from us?'  
  
'Saving Mana isn't stupid!'  
  
"Angie, you have the Fairy in your skull again?" Hawk asked, appearing at her side once again.  
  
"Yeah. How did you know?" she asked.  
  
"Well, you have this vaguely irritated look on her face and I haven't said anything for the past couple of minutes, so...."  
  
Somewhere amidst this complicated internal/external conversation, they had arrived at Palo port. Duran was already talking to one of the ship captains there.  
  
"We need to go to Palo port," the Knight was saying.  
  
The captain stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I don't recommend going there. I heard the Navarre ninjas invaded there recently. Killed the King and all. Nasty business. Better off to stay clear."  
  
Duran was stubborn, though. "We know about that. But we still need to go there."  
  
Shrugging, the ship captain replied, "Well, it's just your luck, then, there's one leaving tomorrow morning!"  
  
Angela snorted. "Luck? Now there's a change."  
  
"We have plenty of luck," Hawk interceded.  
  
"Yeah, all bad luck."  
  
"It'll cost you one hundred and fifty gold pieces each," the captain interrupted, as if to prove her point.  
  
Duran scratched his head in thought at this statement. "Wait.... we don't have any money. Princess, you spent the last of it on Bon Jour."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Excuse us," Angela said sweetly to the sailor, hurriedly leading the others a safe distance away from the port. She hadn't considered that they'd need money to get to Palo! Charity was apparently a thing of the past these days. After all, they saved Forcena and what did they get in return? A handful of gold pieces and a free night at an inn! Whilst the Princess had been happy with it at the time, in retrospect they surely deserved at least some sort of parade!  
  
"Okay," she whispered once they were a safe distance away, dropping Hawk's arm. The thief looked vaguely disappointed. "How are we going to get four hundred and fifty gold pieces by tomorrow?"  
  
Duran shrugged. He'd apparently used up all of his good ideas for the past few days already and hadn't had the chance to recharge. Angela sighed. She already had a bad feeling about what Hawk's moneymaking ideas would be, but there was nowhere else to turn, unless the Fairy could use Mana to make gold. It would probably be a better replacement for her other useless abilites.  
  
"Okay, Hawk, what do you have cooking in that skull of yours? Try not to overheat," Angela sighed.  
  
The thief smiled charmingly. "Actually, I doubt you'd know this, by Byzel is actually home to the world's largest black market." He frowned. "If only I had been able to bring those garden gnomes, I could have sold them there."  
  
"No kidding," Angela said, yet to be impressed. Okay, so she DIDN'T know that there was a black market in Byzel, but then, she didn't really care. "So?"  
  
"Well," the thief said, smile widening into a full-out grin that she wasn't liking the meaning of. He turned to look at the Princess face-on. "They need dancers."  
  
Angela stepped back. "Oh, no way."  
  
"One night would pay for the whole thing! With money to spare!" Hawk insisted.  
  
"You pervert! What makes you think I'd do something like that?!"  
  
Duran frowned. "How can someone earn so much money just by dancing?"  
  
Angela and Hawk both diplomatically ignored that question. The Princess maintained her position, regardless. "There's no way I'll ever do it. I'd let Koren live before I'd do that!"  
  
Yet somehow, four hours later, the sun set and she found herself being escorted by Hawk to the back door of the Black Market.  
  
"Rosie! Trixie! Any openings left tonight?" Hawk asked the two show girls standing in the shadows at the back entrance.  
  
"It's Hawkie!" the blonde shrieked.  
  
"What? By the Goddess, it IS Hawkie! Hawkie, we heard you were dead!" A brunette came out of nowhere and latched on to the thief's arm.  
  
Angela raised an eyebrow. "Hawkie?"  
  
Hiding a grimace, the Navarrian replied, "Just try and ignore it."  
  
"I'm only glad that Duran isn't here to see this," the magician muttered from beneath her lavendar hair.  
  
"We have to try and maintain his and the Fairy's innocence as long as possible," Hawk agreed.  
  
"Hawkie, who's this?" the blonde asked, flouncing over to Angela, who tried her best to smile as inanely as possible.  
  
Giving the Princess a little shove, he replied, "This is a friend of mine, um.... Sherri! She needs some work, can you girls help her out?"  
  
'Sherri?' Angela mouthed indignantly to the thief, who just shrugged as the two girls began to appraise the Princess.  
  
The brunette seemed to be in deep thought, walking around her and lifting the Princess's chin up to observe her features. "Not bad, Hawkie, you sure can pick 'em up! With a little makeup and tweak of the hairstyle she'll be raring to go! Come on, sister!"  
  
Angela was momentarily torn whether to kill Hawk for putting her in this situation or the girl for actually implying that she'd been picked up by a ladies-man-wanna-be like Hawk. However, the choice was torn from her as she was literally dragged away by the two hyperactive (and somewhat scantily clad, the magician noticed) young women into another back room.  
  
Another lapse of time later, Angela was standing out with the other dancers in the center stage area, amongst a seedy crowd selling seedier things and feeling very much exposed.  
  
So began what was possibly the most embarrassing ten hours of Princess Angela's life. It was surprsingly easy to get into the swing of things, though, the two airheads 'Rosie' and 'Trixie', if that was their real names, helping their new pal 'Sherri' with the moves. Angela was suddenly glad for the many wasted hours she'd spent in bars flirting with complete strangers, wearing little more than negligee, because apparently she was better qualified for the job than she thought. It was kind of annoying not being able to drag along her staff, though, to bash the merchants and thieves who dared whistle at them (even though that was kind of the point). Though at one stage she did lose her cool and let out a Holy Ball, thankfully able to pass it off as special effects. THAT had a reaction.  
  
Finally, the whole sordid affair was over, and Angela was handed a bag of gold coins so heavy that she could barely lift it. Thankfully, Hawk appeared from the shadows in his usual eerie yet candid fashion and took it for her. She wasn't terribly comfortable with handing over her hard-earned cash to a renowed thief, but he had to use it for the same things she did so she figured it was safe.  
  
"Thank the Goddess that's over," Angela sighed, moving to the back to get changed from the odd bikini number back into her red 'thong', as the Fairy liked to call it.  
  
Hawk followed her, waving to people as he went. "Jonas, Pedro, how are you? Still selling those turtle shells I see."  
  
"Hawk! You want any of my great potions this time?" A toothless old man asked, walking up beside them.  
  
"Night's over, Ching, besides, I'm a bit broke," Hawk admitted.  
  
"Is okay! Your old friend hear your story, give you some! We old business buddies, I owe you money, too! Call it quits, yes?" The geezer handed the thief a small satchel.  
  
"Thank Ching, quits it is. This doesn't mean you can try and hand me over to the Navarre," Hawk warned, taking the satchel.  
  
"Why me? Think of that? You must crazy! Black Market is safe territory!" the old man insisted.  
  
"Let's keep walking just in case," Hawk said, prodding Angela forward.  
  
"You really think he'd do that?" Angela whispered back.  
  
"This is the Black Market," the thief replied. "I generally don't trust people here as far as I can reach into my pockets. Oh, hey there, Sera, did you lose some weight?"  
  
"You sure do know a lot of people here. Social butterfly of the night?"  
  
"Business, Angie."  
  
"Speaking of business," Angela indicated the blonde and brunette heading in their direction. "Please keep them busy while I change, okay?"  
  
Grinning charmingly, the thief replied, "With pleasure."  
  
Angela briefly grappled with this notion of protectiveness that she was uncertain of what the origins was, before striding into the change rooms and finally getting rid of the skimpy bikini number and becoming refreshed by getting back into her skimpy red number. She tugged her boots on hurriedly, pulled the extra pins and garish feathers out of her hair, and made her way quickly back to the thief, for some odd reason none too keen on the idea on leaving him alone with the two bimbos for longer than necessary. For the sake of the girls' safety, nothing else, the Princess assured herself.  
  
Upon her return, she wasn't terribly surprised to find Hawk standing there with a blonde on one arm, a brunette on the other. Shucks, maybe he wasn't as much of try-hard ladies man than she presumed. She was surprised, though, to see him arguing with a large man, at least twice his size, probably five times if you took his weight into the comparison with Hawk's lithe frame.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked.  
  
"Sherri! You're gonna let us keep Hawkie, right?" The blonde, whom Angela had finally identified as being Trixie asked. The magician wasn't entirely sure what had been said to warrant that question, but the two show girls weren't really that interesting in comparison to the large man Hawk was talking to.  
  
As she arrived, she unfortuantely found herself the target of those beady eyes. "Ah, there she is! I simply implore, Hawkeye, that she work here permanently! Never have we received so much revenue from the dancers before!"  
  
"Hear that, Sherri, you're a hit!" Rosie quipped from Hawk's other arm.  
  
"It's all thanks to you," Angela deadpanned, still angry with the thief for giving her that show name.  
  
"It was one night only. We'll be leaving right away," Hawk insisted.  
  
"By no means can I condone that. I simply DEMAND it," the large man intoned.  
  
At these words, Hawk slipped out of Trixie and Rosie's grasp, and stood in a relaxed position - one by now that the Princess was slowly beginning to recognise as the casual thief's battle-readiness. She wished again that she hadn't left her staff under Duran's care.  
  
"I'm afraid that we won't be meeting those demands. What are you going to do about it?"  
  
The large man seemed like he had something to say about that, but Angela took her cue and stepped behind the thief, and it ended in stalement. Finally, by some unspoken agreement, Hawk began leading the way out of the filthy excuse of a market, waving a brief cheerful goodbye to the two showgirls, who moaned and cried at the loss of their beloved 'Hawkie'.  
  
"Who was that?" the Princess whispered once they were out of the complex and near the harbour. The sun was rising - Duran was going to meet them at the port. Quite frankly, the Princess was looking forward to getting a decent amount of sleep on the voyage to Palo. Dancing all night was so tiring!  
  
"That was the Black Market guru, the guy who runs it. Seems you made quite the impression, Angie! I knew you'd do well," the thief cheerfully replied.  
  
"Gee, and I thought you could cut the tension with a knife," Angela sighed. Wow, if she'd received that kind of reaction for a complete beginner, maybe being a Princess or magician weren't her true purposes in life - though a career as a showgirl wasn't really something Angela considered she really had a taste for.  
  
With that same persistent and quickly-becoming-annoying grin, Hawk cheerily replied, "There's a bit of a taboo on handing in people for rewards at the Black Market, you see, but all sorts of other hits can be taken out there. I have to admit that I'm sure he was looking for an excuse to lop off my head and hand it over to Navarre for a nice reward without getting into any sort of trouble."  
  
"Oh." Angela blinked. "You seem to take this with a disturbing degree of casualness."  
  
Hawk shrugged. "When you told me that your mother had tried to kill you you weren't all the emotional to begin with either."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"Look, Duran's already waiting!" Hawk waved to the Knight, who broke into a grin at the sight of them. Angela was too tired to melt into a puddle of love, though.  
  
"It's not fair, we spent all night working and he got to stay at the inn," the magician groused.  
  
"I doubt a morning person like Duran could have handled it," Hawk said, running a hand through his violet hair. "Besides, did you really want to have the Fairy editorialising the whole time?"  
  
"Point. Let's just get on board this ship and take a nap," the Princess readily agreed.  
  
"Hawk! Princess! Did you get the money?" Duran asked as they arrived.  
  
Hawk held up the bag of gold. "And then some."  
  
Angela thought the swordsman's eyes just might roll out of his head. "Wow, you must have danced really well to get that amount of money, Princess!"  
  
"No comment," said Princess tersely replied, counting out four hundred and fifty gold pieces to pay their passage, searching out the ship's captain they'd spoken to the day before. His eyes visibly gleamed at the gold, and he pointed them to the correct ship.  
  
"You want the rest of your money, Angie?" Hawk asked.  
  
"Why give it back to me? So you can steal it from me again?"  
  
Brief silence. Okay, it was a suspiciously long silence. "I would NEVER do that," Hawk said belately.  
  
Angela snorted her contempt at THAT idea. "Whatever. I'm going to go get some sleep."  
  
So they set out to Palo. It probably would have been more poetic if they sailed into the sunset, but sunrise would just have to do.  
  
_____________________  
  
Tra lah tra lah tada! Please don't forget to review. 


	18. Palo and One Really Scary Climb

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for violence and death and maybe even some seriousness! It's the end of the world!  
  
Author's note: Hmm, not too happy with this chapter, but maybe you'll enjoy it. (Crosses fingers and toes and eyes.. Ooh, I think I'll fall over now). Thanks as usual to everyone for their reviews. I can't believe it; I have nothing of any importance to say in this author's note! Well, short of becoming politically controversial. Ah to hell with it, just read! Enjoyment of said reading is optional, however.  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: What, you didn't notice 'Rosie'? Just kidding. Glad you liked the Black Market. Carlie's not in this chapter, but I have to ask, how did you know? Did I say something? (Oh no, losing mind -goes to shuffle through old pages of script). Thanks very much for your review! Keep up your own good work too!  
  
Ff.net surfer: The black market is always fun.. Riesz isn't in this chapter, but is in the next one. Thanks for your review!  
  
Lj7: Actually, I think the class change is still a couple of chapters away. I'm trying to keep the tempo steady, which might be why it's taking me so long to anything! Sorry!  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Nah, any word of support is always welcome! Thanks for taking the time to drop a line! (Ooooo, I rhyme!)  
  
Staci/Nadia: I hope the Black Market was realistic enough for everyone. I actually tried to make that one believeable. Yes, Angela's starting to get some feelings in that so-called heart of hers, though I will probably make the poor Princess deny it to the bitter end! Bwa ha ha! Glad you liked the ending, and thanks as always for your review!  
  
Slash the Ironman: Thanks!  
  
Solarious: I'm amazed if I managed to surprise you - it's getting harder and harder. Lucky for the Fairy, though, Mana makes her immune to bug spray, so I guess she'll be bothering us for a while yet. Hey, you also use RPG Maker? That is a legendary piece of software! Nifty, you have a Koren character in it! (Don't let Kurai near it). I haven't decided what Hawk's opinion on Angela is going to be yet, but I have lots of ideas! And speaking of ideas, thanks for yours as always, and as for the question of whether you get paid for being a muse - here's a rhetorial question, Solarious; I write the thing. Do I get paid?  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Good for you! Applying at a strip joint for college! I could never work up the nerve (much less pull it off). Lots of poor Hawkie this chapter and the next! Enjoy and thanks for your review!  
  
Wingnut: Thanks for your review/s! BTW, I need Carlie back for the next chapter. Give.  
  
ChibiCharizard: I'm so very happy if I can update quickly enough to please people - and you updated your ficcie too! Hooray! Everyone flock, flock to ChibiCharizard's fic! Thanks very much for your review!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 18 - Palo and One Really Scary Climb  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
It was a couple of boring days to get to Palo, which the Princess mostly filled with lots of sleeping and practicing her magic. Hawk had been surprisingly scarce, doing what Angela didn't want to know and didn't particularly care, except for the fact that she was vaguely concerned that the thief seemed to be avoiding her since she had recently attempted to flirt with him to make Duran jealous. Maybe that was just her imagination though. As for the rest of the party - well, Duran was immensely generous in helping out around the ship, and practicing his sword strokes and shining his armour and everything else, and the Fairy had basically been annoying everyone in turn. Apparently even Hawk was no longer completely immune to the Fairy's chatter, though at least the insect still refused to share his head - something the thief was no doubt grateful for. Angela cursed to herself - he had no idea how lucky he was!  
  
Thus, given that they were supposed to be in the process of saving the world, the mood had been pretty light for most of the trip.  
  
That was until they arrived in Palo, of course.  
  
Hawk finally emerged from his cabin as they pulled up the docks. It would have been just after sunrise, but clouds hung over the city, making the port town seem somewhat muted, mist covering the tip of the great peaks of Rolante overshadowing Palo.  
  
They thanked the ship's captain, they stepped out on to the docks. Almost immediately, they were confronted by what Angela surmised to be a Navarre ninja.  
  
The Princess attempted to stop her skin from crawling as the ninja's blank gaze took them in. Duran tensed, visibly resisting the urge to grip his sword - if he started swinging it around in this territory, who knew what could happen? It was a very different mood to that of castle town of Forcena during the invasion. Of course, Navarre had succeeded in their endeavour, so that probably had a large part to do with it. AndAngela had the feeling that Knights tended to be more charitable and honourable than desert ninja. It kind of stung, though, to think that Navarre, with a bunch of glorified thieves as soldiers succeeded in their endeavour where the powerful Magical Kingdom of Altena had failed.  
  
The ninja didn't seem like he was going to say anything, until his eyes rested on Hawk's face. His facial expression still didn't change, but the ninja suddenly shifted position, moving with a deceptive speed. Angela yelped as a mere moment later, Hawk held the ninja's hand with a dagger in it in a lock, mere inches from his own neck and his short kodachi run through the ninja's throat to silence him before he could call attention to them.  
  
After a prolonged moment, Hawk withdrew, the ninja's lifeless body slumping in his arms. Quickly, Hawk dragged him to the shadows, and dumped the body there, extracting some of the money and weapons from the Navarrian. Angela and Duran, in something of a state of shock, followed closely.  
  
"Hawk... was that really necessary?" Angela whispered.  
  
"I used to have drinks with this guy, Angie. I wouldn't have done it if it weren't absolutely necessary."  
  
"Are you okay, Hawk?" Duran asked worriedly.  
  
Hawk nodded, ever-present smile vanished from his face. "I'm wanted by just about everyone in this country. Isabella is controlling the minds of everyone here - it's just like Navarre." The thief seemed bitter. "I'm afraid I'm a liability to you now. Every trained ninja we run in to will try and kill me."  
  
Another uncomfortable silence followed, even as the thief led them deeper into the alleyways, away from the patrols. Finally, Angela said, "Well, most of the Altenan military is looking out to kill me, and they didn't manage, so you'll be alright!"  
  
Hawk smiled at her paltry effort at comfort. "I think you're just notoriously difficult to kill, Angie."  
  
"Damn right I am!" Angela exclaimed, barely remembering to keep her voice low. She hadn't heard much about this Isabella, but she was sounding almost as nasty, not to mention as powerful, as Koren, if she could put an entire army under that kind of hypnotism. Maybe they could figure some way to set the two against each other - then they might actually have some luck by getting them to kill each other.  
  
"If Palo is so dangerous, then maybe we should try and go find Jinn and the Wind Mana Stone as quickly as possible," Duran suggested. Hawk nodded his confirmation of this idea.  
  
"The less time spent in Palo the better," he agreed grimly. They continued walking cautiously through the back alleayways, avoiding the main streets where ninjas stood guard and a few brave townspeople hurried about their morning business, faces down and eyes averted to deflect attention from themselves.  
  
Angela's own apprehension was profound, but heavily accentuated as she watched the thief lead the way cautiously through the streets. Hawk's eyes seemed to be constantly flicking to the shadows. His expression unnerved her. Hawk was.... nervous?  
  
If Hawk was nervous, then she ought to be downright afraid too. He'd faced down zombies, Jeweleater, Koren, and even Carlie and hadn't lost that annoying air of confidence even once. To the Princess, there wasn't anything that frightened her more than a frightened Hawk.  
  
They were passing another alleyway when the thief suddenly halted, and began to walk down it.  
  
"Hawk?" Angela hissed. "Where are you going?"  
  
"Nikita?" the Navarrian was saying into the shadows. As Duran and Angela caught up, they saw the thief confronting what looked like another Navarrian cat-person - at least, that's all the magician could figure out. "Nikita, it's me, Hawk! Where's Jessica? You said you'd watch her for me. Nikita? Don't you recognise me?"  
  
Nikita's blank gaze didn't seem to pick up on the thief at all. After a moment, though, the cat-person began to slowly draw out a dagger. Hawk continued, heedless of the danger, though they were both certain he saw it.  
  
"Nikita, don't tell me.... please don't tell me Isabella got you too. Nikita!"  
  
Angela couldn't stand it anymore, and neither could Duran, apparently. The two of them ran forward and dragged Hawk back with them, not stopping until they were way out of sight of the cat-person.  
  
The Fairy appeared on top of Duran's head. She looked sympathetic. "The magic these ninja are under is powerful. I can see why you're on the run."  
  
Hawk's fists were clenched. "I can't believe she got Nikita too.... wasn't Eagle and Jessica enough? Damn Isabella!"  
  
Angela wasn't entirely certain what the thief was talking about, since he hadn't really enlightened them to much more than the fact that he was in exile, Isabella was controlling the thieves' guild and this Jessica was somehow cursed, but it certainly didn't sound good. Hawk had it just as rough as she did, and this was the first serious indication she'd seen yet that the desert rat actually had real problems to contend with. She was overcome with intense sympathy, and felt suddenly awkward, much the way she had at Forcena with Duran.  
  
Duran apparently didn't know what else to do either, other than push them on to keep their minds occupied. "We should keep going."  
  
The Fairy seemed to think keeping busy was a good idea too, hurriedly stating, "I agree. If the Navarre Thieves' Guild is so well established here, then the Wind Mana Stone is in serious jeopardy. We shouldn't be wasting time."  
  
Hawk nodding, standing and beginning to lead the way through the shadows once again wordlessly. They managed to avoid any more encounters with any more of the guarding ninja, though had plenty of close calls. None of them really relaxed until they were on the open road that led up the mountain towards Rolante castle, and even then Hawk was still visibly on edge. Angela's stomach growled. They hadn't been able to stop at any of the shops in Palo, either, because chances were the townspeople would hate Hawk just as much as the ninajs did. That was a whole lot of bad vibes in one place for any one person.  
  
Duran let out a breath. "Hopefully that's the worst of it. It won't be much fun finding a boat out of there without getting caught. We might have to hole you up somewhere for a while, Hawk."  
  
The thief nodded silently, amber eyes still roaming the countryside and any shadows relentlessly.  
  
"Let's just hope that Navarre hasn't set up any presence around Jinn's Mana Stone yet," The Fairy said, taking up position on top of Duran's head again.  
  
"Here's hoping!" Angela agreed, and then frowned when she saw a rustle in the bushes as they walked. "What's that?"  
  
Apparently the on-edge Hawk had been way ahead of her, because a moment later he emerged from the bushes holding up the body of a slain needlebird. "Looks like there's plenty of unfriendly wildlife here, too. Mana's not going too well, is it Fairy?"  
  
The Fairy looked concerned - the Princess merely scoffed. "At least Rolante doesn't have any pesky rabites."  
  
Duran spotted another one of the creatures, and went after it with his sword. Another dead needlebird or two later, it seemed that maybe killing the things wasn't such a good idea, as the birds were flocking for revenge.  
  
"Ack! Get them away from me! What's the big idea?! Hawk, look at what you started!"  
  
"It's not my fault nature caused the evolution of a bunch of carniverous hive-minded birds!" the thief retorted, dodging the large, pointy and thus deadly beak of one of the needle birds.  
  
"DIAMOND MISSILE!" Angela yelled, the sky raining huge spears of gem. Her spell had given then a temporary respite. "Five out of six, my aim's getting good!"  
  
"It's getting more powerful, too," the Fairy agreed from her position with Duran. "With Mana's power and all your practice you're all getting quite skilled."  
  
Angela paused. That sounded like a compliment! From the Fairy? No way, she'd probably started shwoing the same symptoms of insanity everyone else seemed to be sporting these days.  
  
Duran dispatched what appeared to be the last of the at least nearby supply of needlebirds. "All these angry wildlife are really going to start making travelling difficult."  
  
"What's a girl like me going to do? But Hawk's around to protect me, right Hawk?" Angela said, grabbing on to his arm and batting her eyelashes. The thief completely ignored her, instead seeming alerted by something further up the slope. Disappointed, she dropped his arm. Maybe it would be a better idea to leave off him for the time being, until he was less on-edge - Duran's face had flickered at her effort, so that'd have to do for now.  
  
"What is it, Hawk?" Duran asked.  
  
"I think our little battle called the attention of a patrol. Looks like about six ninjas, heading our way. We have to find an alternate path," Hawk said, tensing, as if ready to unleash his kodachi. Lucky for them, they were still well hidden by some of the vegetation lower down the slope.  
  
Angela looked around furtively. "But where? There IS only one path!"  
  
Duran looked around. "We'll just have to climb up that cliff."  
  
The magician took a good, long look at said cliff and nearly suffered a coronary occulsion. "YOU MUST BE JOKING! That's practically vertical!"  
  
Hawk hurried them along. "They won't think to look there, but if we want to get out of their line of sight, we have to hurry, unless you really WANT to fight possessed ninja, which trust me, is NOT fun. Duran, you go first."  
  
The Knight nodded, making sure his sword was securly fastened to his belt, and began to grasp the rock face, pulling himself up and to the side. Hawk motioned for Angela to follow suite. After a long moment of hesitation, the Princess finally bit her lip and went after Duran. She hated this! Heights were definitely not her thing, climbing even less so!  
  
So the three intrepid Mana heroes attempted to climb one of Rolante's legendary cliffs. The Fairy actually made herself useful occasionally by flying up ahead to make sure there were no obstructions. Angela was exhausting really quickly, though. Climbing was not easy - especially not climbing like this! Her certainty of falling to her death, though, soon abated somewhat, probably by the presence of Hawk below her and the wonderful view of Duranshe was getting.  
  
Duran was moving quite slowly, though, being the heaviest of them and pulling himself up the cliff by sheer strength, but he seemed to be managing just fine. Hawk, on the other hand, seemed like an overgrown mountain goat - Angela did suppose that his speed and agility were his major focus, so it made sense, but she was really envying his grace and balance that probably came from many years of scaling fences and walls to gain illegal entrance into facilities. Angela, on the other hand, was wishing that Wisp or Gnome had taught her to fly. Then again, if she could fly, then she couldn't have fun by putting her foot into Hawk's face a couple of times.  
  
"Argh! Angie! It's like you're trying to push me off!"  
  
"No way! I have to keep you around to break my fall!" Angela called back. It was kind of relieving to hear the thief banter with her, his mind taken off Palo at least temporarily.  
  
"It's worth the view I guess," Hawk commented from below her.  
  
"What? HOLY-" Unfortunately, spell casting meant taking a hand off the wall. "Eeek!" Hawk would have to be temporarily spared from her righteous wrath.  
  
The Fairy floated down to them. "Try not to kill each other, okay? We're almost at the top of this cliff!"  
  
"No ninjas waiting in ambush?" Hawk called up, worriedly.  
  
"Nothing there! Not even those Needlebirds."  
  
Angela wondered briefly what Needlebirds ate. How would they feel about Fairies? "Well then why are you still here bothering us? Stop showing off! Not everyone can float in mid-air like you!"  
  
The Fairy grinned, did a figure-of-eight in the air then hurried back to Duran. Angela muttered a string of feebly concealed insults under her breath. She had no patience for the tiny deity's attitude today.  
  
Finally, they pulled themselves over the edge of the shoal onto a minature plateau.  
  
"Let's never, ever do that again," Angela puffed, trying to catch her breath. She considered herself graceful enough, but it required some pretty serious strength to drag oneself up a vertical climb like that, especially when one's heart was beating at an unmeasurable speed from just looking down with their peripheral vision. At least, however, they had avoided those pesky mobs of needlebirds and the patrolling ninjas.  
  
After a few minutes to rest, Duran stood and began to lead the way along the only suitable pathway, which they hoped led towards the Wind Mana Stone - they were mostly relying on luck to find it, they had no maps of Rolante, and beyond the one main road there certainly weren't any road signs. If she ever got the chance to meet up with Riesz again they'd have to have a discussion about that.  
  
As they emerged into the next clearing, Angela was impressed to be greeted with a field of pretty flowers. Wow, this would be a great romantic destination! She mentally filed it under her list of Destinations To Go With Duran When He Was Her Boyfriend. "Neat! Who would have thought a rocky old mountain would have a place like this?"  
  
The Fairy was obviously happy that she'd somewhat guided them to this pleasant little enclave. "And no enemies, either, see? Mana power isn't completely lost!"  
  
Hawk didn't seem impressed with that notion. "I doubt Mana has anything to do with it. I'd say it's more like no enemies come here for a reason."  
  
"It doesn't really matter. As much as I'd like to take a nap here, we'd better keep moving," Duran said, wading into the small field of flowers, Angela and Hawk following. They were about halfway across, when Angela realised that she was feeling quite sleepy.  
  
'Must be the sun' she thought groggily - indeed, it was nice and warm, and so tempting to lie down. Up ahead, Duran had collapsed into the soft bed of flowers himself, apparently fast asleep. That was odd.  
  
Only then, did the eerie precognitivity of Duran's statement come to bear. It was the flowers! The flowers were making them sleepy!  
  
Angela and Hawk seemed to arrive at this conclusion at the same time. "An antidote, I need to find an antidote," Hawk murmured frantically, struggling to retrieve his satchel of herbs, but in the end too drowsy to withdraw it from his belt. He staggered, and Angela herself, a little further ahead, fell down next to Duran. Well, it was an ideal scenario, but she was so sleepy, too sleepy to enjoy it.  
  
She blinked once, twice, and then fell into a peaceful slumber.  
  
_____________________  
  
Oh my goodness that's HOW many times I've utilised the tragic unconsciosuness ending? I'd better start thinking of more creative ways to be ending chapters. Flock, Review, everybody flock to review! (Flock is my word-of-the-week. Flock to word of the week, everyone, flock!) 


	19. All Princesses Are Violent and Temperame...

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for the usual violence, innuendo, and general mayhem. Really, no one should be surprised by now. (LOOK! A giant walking and talking taco!)  
  
Author's note: Hello! A new chapter! (For those of you who are crpytic- decoding challenged). Another chapter where nothing happens! Whee! No progress is made! This story is like a hamster running on an endless wheelie-thing! It gets nowhere! But Kevin says three words this chapter! Three whole words! (Count 'em). If that isn't cause for celebration, quite frankly, I don't know what is. (World peace? What are you talking about?)  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: I don't know why you apologise for being late reviewing (though I'm not complaining) but it's a really nice change from me always apologising for posting chapters late! I thank you from the bottom of my cardiovascular muscle tissue. Watch the birds gather. to flock. Mweh heh heh.  
  
Lj7: As for the answer to how they manage to climb up the mountain, I refer you to the chapter on How They Survive The Cannon Trip. And as for Nikita having weapons - well, they sell them, don't they? And if he was brainwashed to kill, then he'd have LOTS of weapons handy for slicey-dicey. I have justified myself! Hooray!  
  
Staci/Nadia: Altena didn't seem to think out their invasion of Forcena very thoroughly.. I don't know what I'll do about Jessica yet (ah, who am I kidding, I know EXACTLY what I'm going to do. *Prepares a fire blanket*). It's getting hard to stay surprising, so I have decided to give up and fall into cliché! Watch me fall! (I'm exceedingly happy because I had a real meal tonight, with more than two ingredients and it wound up tastiet than your standard piece of charcoal, in case you couldn't tell.) Anyhow, for the rest of your answers please read the chapter! Thank you again for a great review!  
  
^_^: (How do you pronounce that?) EVERYbody wants me to put Carlie on the ghost ship, I'll think about it then (we're supposed to live in a democratic society, but not in my fanfics, dammit!) Nah, just kidding. Thanks very much for your review.  
  
Wingnut: Thank you. I shall make good use of Carlie once again. I hope you can dig your computer out of the remains of your house to review this chapter. I salute you! And offer a sacrificial Bigfoot to Minerva for protection. (I put a ribbon on it, see?)  
  
Mig-31: *coughcough* You must be psychic. Please, be harsh, no point holding back, I treat Duran like an idiot half the time anyway. Ack, new votes! I'm really sorry, but even though your votes tip a balance, I already announced the final classes (that was sure pre-emptive of me, wasn't it?) and I can't really be renegging now. Hey, wow, someone from Malaysia, grooV. What a truly global online community we live in (rushes off to write a thesis on new media technology.) BTW, thanks for the review.  
  
Solarious: It's the muse! G'day, here's your chapter in payment. Solarious, I would like to dedicate this chapter to you. It's finally here. Yes, yes it is. Ack, a grammar mistake! Thanks, I'll try and get around to fixing that up (though if I'm going to be anal about that, it's technically a typo. I type too fast to worry about silly space keys! What ridiculous notions!) What do you mean, you have a sinking feeling about that? You suggested it! Stop pretending to be psychic; you're not fooling anyone! (Except the FBI, they should be arriving there right about..... Now.) Cheers.  
  
Slash The Ironman: No, you can just praise me! (Praiseme Praiseme Praiseme Praiseme Praiseme Praiseme Praiseme!) As you can see, I'm starved for attention (and high on caffeine.) Thank you for the review, please don't hurt me.  
  
Ff.net surfer/Eliar Swiftfire: Why you are using your brother's account to review is a profound mystery to me. However, it got me an extra review so I'm not complaining! I did, however, send your brother a comprehensive E- Mail detailing your misuse of his account! I spread misery, misery everywhere! (Blackmail..) Thanks a bunch mate.  
  
Whoo, I spent WAY too long on Response to Reviewers today, must be in one of those weird rambling moods. Sorry! I'll go now, and you can finally read my latest feeble attempt at entertainment! Have fun, and try not to hurt yourselves.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 19 - All Princesses are Violent and Temperamental  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Angela wasn't certain how much later it was when she found herself blinking groggily and staring at the rocky ceiling of a cave. But she was in quite a comfortable bed - of course, it held nothing on her great double-sized four-poster silk-sheeted bed back in Altena, but given the conditions she'd been living in recently it was certainly serviceable.  
  
Where was she? It seemed like she was having this problem far too much recently. Had she been drinking? Oh no, that's right, they'd been in a field of flowers and had fallen asleep.  
  
Well where was the field and the flowers then? Where was she?  
  
Duran was just waking up next to her - the Fairy hovered over them worriedly.  
  
"Duran? Where are we?"  
  
"You're in the Rolante underground resistance base," a very familiar- sounding voice answered.  
  
Angela pulled herself out of the bed, reaching for her cane, only to find Riesz holding it out to her. "Missing something?"  
  
"Riesz? You made it out of Jad!" Angela said in shock, taking her cane back. The Amazon handed Duran his sword as well.  
  
"The Beastmen withdrew for some reason, but I still couldn't find Elliot anywhere. I heard news of a resistance so I headed back here," the Rolante Princess explained.  
  
"Kevin come too!" Another voice added. The Beastman from Jad followed Riesz into the room - at least, Angela assumed it was the same Beastman, because he was in his werewolf form. It must be just after sunset, Angela surmised. Climbing the mountain had taken most of the day.  
  
"Talk about a reunion. So, how did we get here?" Angela asked.  
  
"A patrol found you just outside our secret entrance in the flower field and brought you in. I was only just notified, and came straight over. The pollen puts people to sleep. You ought to be immune to it by now - everyone else here is. It's protected us from Navarre's detection, though. We're planning to retake the castle."  
  
"Ambitious," Duran commented. "Rolante's defenses now work against you."  
  
Riesz nodded her agreement. "We're going to have a meeting to plan in a while. I wouldn't mind the opinion of a Knight of Forcena there."  
  
"Of course," Duran agreed.  
  
A third voice came from the door. "Carlie help too!"  
  
No... it couldn't be, could it? Not again!  
  
It was. The terrifying tyke from Wendel came strolling through the door. Her already shining baby blue eyes brightened to impossibly high levels at the sight of Angela and Duran.  
  
"Slutty girl and Friend Duran make it here too!"  
  
"How- how did you get here?" Angela spluttered.  
  
The young girl looked deep in thought. "Fat Crazy Person send Carlie off in cannon, but when Carlie arrive Slutty Girl and Friend Duran not there! But then Carlie is lucky to run into Scary Lady and Beastie Man! Now Carlie help!"  
  
Riesz looked very tired at this statement. Apparently the Amazoness had learnt the true nature of Carlie's personality over their time at Jad and now here. "Yes, Carlie." Bon Jour had apparently done his job after all, but what a cruel twist of fate! No matter how hard they tried they couldn't shake off the child! Come to think of it, though, if Bon Voyage's cannon was capable of sending them this distance, why hadn't he sent them straight to Rolante? It would have saved them a whole lot of trouble.  
  
"What about Kevin?" Angela asked. "What's he still doing with you?"  
  
Riesz shrugged. "Ever since we made it out of Jad he's kind of just followed me from lack of other ideas."  
  
"And you're okay with having a Beastman tag-a-long?" Angela asked, somewhat incredulously.  
  
The Amazon sighed. "Well.... during the day, he's a little girl-crazy and follows everyone around like a lovesick-puppy, but that's not too bad. It's worse when like now he turns into a werewolf - NO, BAD KEVIN! DOWN!"  
  
After Riesz had discplined the werewolf by wapping him across the nose with the blunt end of her lance, the Princess turned back the newly awakened- duo. "So, Angela-" Somewhere along the line the two Princesses had dumped the formalities, probably due to their now-shared bond of having to put up with Carlie. "-I guess you guys must have finally ditched that desert rat Hawk, huh?"  
  
Angela stood bolt upright. She'd completely forgotten! "HAWK! Where is he?"  
  
Riesz looked puzzled. "You mean he was with you?"  
  
"He was in the field of flowers with us," Duran said, now looking worried.  
  
Riesz's blue eyes widened. "If our soldiers found him out there with you they'd have thought he was a Navarre ninja and put him in the dungeon! Come with me!"  
  
The Amazon hurriedly led the way out of the cavern, Angela and Duran scrambling after her. Kevin followed, though was constantly being distracted by sniffing everything along the way. Carlie merely trailed them, happily swinging her arms and humming to herself. Obviously the child was in an unusually good mood - Angela made a mental point not to talk to her at all, lest she slip and have to dodge the crazy morningstar again. One of these days it was going to connect and cause some serious complications. A war between Wendel and Altena over the assassination of the Princess - now THAT would be interesting.  
  
On the way, another of the guards approached Riesz. "Your highness, a fight's broken out in the dungeon!"  
  
"That must be him," Riesz surmised, in a case of amazing deduction to rival Angela's. "Hurry it up!"  
  
Running now, the party arrived at the cave holding the dungeon. Several Amazoness guards were standing around, uncertain what to do, obviously never anticipating what to do in a scenario like this in case it was a set- up for escape.  
  
On the floor of the cell lay several unconscious, and quite possibly dead, Navarre ninajs. They came just in time to see Hawk, after obviously fighting off several assailants already, cornered and being held a foot in the air by a large burly ninja who was wrapping his hands around his neck and suffocating the thief.  
  
Hawk was attempting to pry the choking hands free, and lacking in the strength comparison had resorted to kicking his assailant, but his efforts were getting more and more feeble.  
  
"Hawk!" Angela called.  
  
"Gkkkkk*" Hawk choked out.  
  
Riesz unlocked the cell door and she and Duran pulled the ninja away, forcing him to drop Hawk. The thief collapsed onto the ground and started wheezing.  
  
Angela dragged him from the cell with Riesz and Duran following, the Amazon quickly locking it again. Those ninjas still conscious returned to their dull, blank-eyed stare now that their quarry was out of reach once again.  
  
The Altenan Princess helped the thief sit up. "Are you okay?"  
  
Massaging his neck, Hawk rasped out, "I will be."  
  
Riesz looked mildly impressed. "I guess you weren't kidding when you said that they were out to kill you."  
  
Relieved that their travelling companion was more-or-less alive, Angela turned her attention back to a matter that had been bothering her for some time now. "KEVIN! Stop sniffing my butt already!"  
  
"Just give him a whack across the nose," Riesz counselled her, quickly bringing her lance across and smacking the werewolf across the nose. Kevin yelped, and retreated a safe distance away, tail tucked between his legs and went back to exploring other less threatening parts of the cave.  
  
Angela sighed. "How DO you put with that?"  
  
Riesz shrugged. She turned back to the thief, who was currently being helped to his feet by Duran. He managed to stand on his own after a moment. "I apologise for that, my people didn't know you were a defector."  
  
Hawk grinned - Angela didn't like the gleam in his eye. "Riesz! You made it safely out of Jad! I thought you were dead! I'm so happy!" In an unexpected move, he pulled the Amazoness in towards him and gave her a passionate kiss, half bending her over backwards.  
  
There was a long moment of silence - Riesz's eyes were wide in shock. Hawk let her go, then stood back, smiling cheerfully as always, as though he hadn't done anything out of the usual. Angela fumed. Kevin growled deep in his throat nearby, obviously jealous HE hadn't thought of doing that. Riesz, on the other hand, spluttered and.....  
  
"What-? How-? You- PREPARE TO DIE!" Riesz suddenly yelled, raising her lance, ready to make the thief into shishakabob.  
  
Duran waved nervously by the sidelines, obviously concerned for the health of his friend. "Hawk! You shouldn't stand there!"  
  
Hawk nodded his agreement, swiftly dodging the Princess's deadly lance, then stepping aside to also miss Angela's staff. "You pervert!" The magician yelled. "You should think more carefully about kissing girls!"  
  
"No way!" Riesz yelled. "I'M the one who was defiled, I get to kill him!"  
  
"I saw those stars in your eyes! You wouldn't go through with it! I've been waiting weeks to kill him, let me at him! I have rights!" Angela replied.  
  
"CARLIE NO LIKE FIGHTING!" A third voice added to the argument.  
  
"You're just jealous!" Riesz taunted.  
  
"JEALOUS? HOLY BA- dammit, if I'm going to kill Hawk I can't waste my spells on you!"  
  
Hawk had effectively removed himself from the conflict, and stood next to Duran with a sort of look of detached interest on his face. "All I wanted to do was say hello."  
  
The Fairy had emerged from Duran's head to watch the scenario play out. "Maybe you'd better to find a less controversial way to do so next time."  
  
Duran shook his head in amazement. "I don't believe it. It's true. All Princesses really ARE violent and temperamental."  
  
The three males and Fairy stood and stared as Angela and Riesz continued their heated argument over who had the rights to Hawk's death. Carlie, in the meantime, just caused general havoc, figuring that if everyone else was having hissy fits and destroying things, she may as well get in with the fun too. They probably weren't setting the child a good example, but then, it was hard to imagine that their influence could possibly make the young girl any worse.  
  
The Fairy finally said, "Well, Hawk, I guess you did get the attention off yourself."  
  
Hawk paused. "You shouldn't try and use your mind-reading powers for evil, Fairy."  
  
The Fairy snorted her contempt at that idea. "What, you mean the way Angela uses her magic to spread light and joy everywhere?"  
  
"At least she has the light part covered," the thief agreed.  
  
"Didn't Riesz say there was going to be a meeting?" Duran asked.  
  
"Duran, I was being choked to death by a Navarre ninja prior to your arrival. How would I know about a meeting?"  
  
"Oh yeah. Well, there's going to be one. We should go get something to eat before it," the Knight suggested.  
  
"Sounds like a plan," Hawk agreed. "Coming, Kevin?"  
  
Even Kevin had grown bored of watching the argument, and he usually put his stomach before everything else anyway. With a gruff reply, he followed the two others as they made their way out of the dungeons, Hawk winking at the Amazoness guards as he did so. Lucky for him, most of them just blushed and averted their eyes, rather than attempting to kill him like Riesz did.  
  
Some time later, Angela and Riesz suddenly realised that they had lost both their audience and target.  
  
"How rude," Angela complained. "Using the opportunity to escape like that."  
  
Riesz's eyes suddenly widened as she realised how long they had been there arguing over the killing rights to Hawk. "Oh no! I'm going to be late for the meeting! Hurry up, Angela!"  
  
"What about Carlie?" the magician asked, against her better judgement. The small pink-clad girl was over at the barred gates to the prison cells, presumably torturing the prisoners.  
  
"If we leave quietly, she might not notice us," Riesz conselled. The two Princesses crept away.  
  
Once safely out of earshot, Riesz led the way to the meeting chambers. Hawk, Duran and Kevin were already there, looking satisfied after their extended lunch break. Angela wondered why she had never made use of the 'way to a man through his stomach' move on Duran yet. She made a mental note to attempt that should her conquest fail. What was Hawk's idea, anyway, kissing Riesz like that? He never would have had the gall to do that to her! To be honest, with Riesz's reputation, she was surprised he had dared - the Amazoness was known, after all, to react badly to a guy just looking at her for too long. It was an extreme case of defensive mechanism if Angela ever saw one.  
  
Several other Amazoness guards were gathered in the war council room with them, along with what Angela assumed to be government officials who had escaped the invasion of Rolante. Duran was standing at attention - it had to be a big deal for a Knight like him, being asked to sit in on a war council. Kevin was busy scratching his ear, and Hawk was doing his best to blend into the shadows - something he was decidedly good at it. Old habits died hard, she supposed. He was invited to the war council and still acted like he was there to spy on it. If the crazy desert rat wasn't careful, he'd wind back up in prison.  
  
Angela tuned out of most of the preliminary briefing, as she knew the gist of it already and didn't need to be reminded of how dire the situation was, and inspected her fingernails with a great deal of fascination instead. She started paying attention again when Riesz and the elders started to theorize on how they might recapture Rolante.  
  
"We don't have the numbers to try a direct retake on the castle," Riesz mused. "If we ambushed them we might still succeed, but the lossess would be unacceptable and it'd be imposisble to defend it after we retook it."  
  
One of the councillors nodded his agreement. "What we really need is Jinn's assistance. The only reason the Navarre managed to invade successfully was because we lost the wind's protection."  
  
"Where does Jinn live, anyway?" Duran asked, no doubt considering their own mission as well.  
  
"The wind corridor is on the west side of this mountain," Riesz informed him. "That's supposed to be where Jinn resides, though no one has heard from him lately."  
  
Angela rolled her eyes. "Sounds like the classic problem going on around the Mana Stones everywhere."  
  
"Ya think?" Hawk muttered. "I bet that was Isabella's reason for taking over Rolante to begin with, the damn witch."  
  
Angela tried her best not to be offended by the 'witch' comment, and Riesz dutifully ignored the thief, obviously deciding to give him the silent treatment as a compromised punishment for his earlier advance, though Angela wasn't so oblivious as not to notice the other Princess blush deeply every time she looked in the thief's direction. Blonde hussy. "We used to control the wind power from the castle, but, well......" She sighed, blowing a lock of her golden hair from her eyes. "I just don't see how we can do it. We can't even sneak in."  
  
"What about if we help?" Duran suggested. "We already have the assistance of Gnome and Wisp - we even helped deflect the invasion on Forcena! You might not be able to get an army in there, but surely a small yet strong group would fare better."  
  
Riesz shook her head. "Thank you for your generous offer, but I don't want your help with retaking the castle from the enemy. It is our problem, not yours. You only need to concern yourself with finding Jinn, correct?"  
  
"I disagree, Riesz," Hawk drawled from the shadows. "This involves the Navarre, therefore it directly involves me, and furthermore if Navarre's trying to get to the Wind Mana Stone it's our business as well."  
  
The Amazoness was if anything, stubborn. "It doesn't matter. That still wouldn't work; you'd never make it past the gate! Rolante castle is at the top of the mountain, they'd see you coming before you even got close, the alarm would be raised and you couldn't sneeze without having twenty ninjas stab you through the heart!"  
  
The councillor stepped forward thoughtfully. "What we really need is the advice of a wise sage, such as Don Perigon."  
  
Angela blinked. "Don Perigon? It sounds like some sort of food dish."  
  
Shaking his head, the councillor said, "Don Perigon is a brilliant strategist. If anyone could plan a retake of Rolante effectively, it would be him. We should seek his council."  
  
Another of the councillors began nodding vigorously. "I think that's a great idea! We shall consult Don Perigon." This was apparently all the decision-making needed in Rolante - Angela was insanely jealous, in order to get ANYTHING planned in Altena beyond a direct order from the Queen of Reason, it had be suggested, seconded, verified, voted on.... Things would be changing when she was ruler! For one, ladies-man wanna-bes would be outlawed, and she'd be setting up a nice comfy alliance with Forcena too.  
  
There was a brief silence after having decided on a course of action. Finally, one of the Amazoness said, "But who shall go?"  
  
Riesz stepped forward with confidence, brandishing her lance for effect. "I will."  
  
Well, that was obviously not going to go down well with anyone. "But Princess! It's too risky! With the whereabouts of Prince Elliot still uncertain, you are the last in the line of our royalty! What if something were to happen to you?"  
  
"What difference does it make?" Riesz snapped back, obviously offended at being pampered. Hawk, Duran and Kevin all stepped back, lest the warrior's temper catch a hold again - though it was difficult imagining the Princess beating up an old frail man, it was always possible, or even more possible she might decide to let out her frustration on a sturdier target. "I could be just as easily killed here - if anything, it's safer to be travelling!"  
  
"Please, Princess," one of the guards begged, also stepping forward. "You have only just returned. The troops morale has been raised so high! We need you here to lead us!"  
  
Now Riesz was visibly torn. Obviously whilst the Princess had no self- preservation instinct whatsoever, she was one of those leaders that just couldn't leave her people behind. How wonderfully cliche, Angela thought to herself, raising an eyebrow.  
  
'I think it admirable,' the Fairy argued from inside her head.  
  
Twitching, Angela thought back, 'And just how long have you been hiding in here this time?' Obviously the annoying insect was getting better at holding her tongue to maintain the secrecy of her presence.  
  
'Um.....'  
  
Duran was determinedly pressing his case. "We can go," the Knight announced.  
  
Angela wasn't sure if she liked the idea of going on a wild goose chase for a wise sage that she'd never heard of, considering the last three wise people she had spoken to all seemed to be senile. Then again, it mightn't be that bad to put some distance between Riesz and Hawk, or even Riesz and Duran for that matter, and any distance from Kevin, because he was looking at her with creepy puppy-dog eyes, and any distance from Carlie, because, well, she was Carlie.  
  
"Thank you, but I already said.... well....," Riesz looked around, as though she was hoping for any other answer.  
  
"It's our mission to protect the Mana Stone, and we can't do that with Navarre causing trouble," Duran pressed.  
  
"Besides, we so love travelling back and forth by cannon everywhere. It really get the kinks out of our backs," Hawk drawled.  
  
Riesz caved. "Would you?" She smiled sweetly at the Knight. "It would be such a great help! I'd love to go myself, but...."  
  
"Yeah yeah, we know," Angela rushed her, so that the Princess could stop making gooey eyes at Hawk and Duran. Shaking her head, she corrected herself - just Duran. The damn Amazon and thief could make out all they wanted so long as it didn't ruin her quest. Right, they could do whatever they liked and she didn't care! "Where is this wise guy?"  
  
The elderly councillor stroked his beard thougthfully - he obviously did this often, which may be why the beard was so tapered. "I believe he is in the Rabite Forest, south of Jad."  
  
The magician suppressed the urge to groan. Not back there! How annoying. All the bad memories... well, at least all the Beastmen were gone.  
  
"The only problem is, Don Perigon is a Chibikko," the councillor continued, still stroking his beard in thought. "They don't like outsiders. If you want to see him, you'll have to find the magical hammer that shrinks you to Chibikko size. You can probably find it in Byzel Port, at the Black Market."  
  
Hawk seemed to be rummaging in his bag for something. After a moment, he held up his prize - a weird looking hammer. "You mean this?"  
  
Agape, the councillor stuttered, "Well, yes, but how-?"  
  
Angela grabbed the thief into a headlock. "You moron! Don't tell me you stole this off some nice old lady at the Black Market while I was hard at work!"  
  
"I swear, Angie, she gave it to me!"  
  
"A likely story! Just like Watts gave you that gunpowder and all those people in Wendel gave you their purses!"  
  
"It's true! Ack, stop! I've already been suffocated once today!"  
  
Giving up, as in retrospect however Hawk got the hammer it did save them a lot of travelling time, Angela released the thief from her hold somewhat reluctantly, Riesz running over to him to make sure he was okay and praise him on his resourcefulness. The magician pointedly looked the other way.  
  
'She wasn't so impressed with his thieving back at Jad,' she muttered to herself.  
  
'Nor was she so concerned about his well-being,' the Fairy commented.  
  
"So," Riesz continued, after ensuring Hawk was okay, and blushing deeply after he has asked her to kiss it better, leaving Hawk with another bruise from Riesz's lance. "I assume you'll be leaving right away. Would you perhaps want to take Kevin and Carlie along to help-"  
  
"No thanks! What a nice offer though! Let's get going guys!" Angela hurriedly interrupted, grabbing a hold of Duran and Hawk and dragging them towards what she hoped was the exit. Before Riesz could possibly implement her clever plan to be rid of the two tag-a-longs - as if Angela needed any more of those, Hawk and the Fairy were plenty!- another of the Amazonesses stepped forward and began to lead the way.  
  
"Please follow me. I know a means by which to get you to Jad."  
  
Anxious to get away before fate threw Carlie back into her lap, Angela quite agreeably followed this soldier to an area outside of the mountain.... to be confronted by a cannon.  
  
"Dear Goddess no," Angela whispered.  
  
'The Goddess doesn't grant stupid requests,' the Fairy lectured.  
  
'Not wanting to be blasted in a suicidal fashion out of a cannon isn't a stupid request! Why can't the Goddess grant one little simple side-wish?!'  
  
'Because she doesn't like you.'  
  
'You're making that up.'  
  
'What other explanation do you have for all your lousy luck?'  
  
'Stop reading my thoughts, you ingrateful little insect!'  
  
"No one knows about this yet, I plan to unveil when we retake Rolante! But since you were so much help to my cousin, Bon Voyage, I'll send you to Jad for free!" the Amazoness offered.  
  
"Cousin?" Duran asked.  
  
Hawk was pale. "It's like a mafia. Why haven't I heard of this underground ring before?"  
  
"In you get!" the Amazoness cheerfully ordered.  
  
Sighing, as this was still a better prospect than the treacherous climb back down the Path to the Heavens, the three Mana heroes clambered into the cannon and began their now-ritual prayers.  
  
"I'm starting to enjoy the close familiarity of these cannons," Hawk commented from below the Princess.  
  
"It's more fun outside of the cannon, Hawk," Angela slyly commented. With satisfaction, she noticed Duran's shoulder stiffen slightly. She was getting better at this.  
  
"It's a date then, Angie. Ice cream then bed and breakfast. Can I have top-bunk?"  
  
Angela clenched her teeth and forced herself not to respond.  
  
'Whoops, he responded this time,' the Fairy jibed gleefully. 'Bet you didn't expect that, Princess.'  
  
'It's all the lack of oxygen to his brain recently. It's making him more stupid and reckless than usual,' Angela hissed.  
  
"Bon Voyage!" the Amazoness called out.  
  
BOOM!  
  
There they went again.  
  
_____________________  
  
Yes. Yes they do. And please Review. (If you review in quick time, I will quit these sad attempts to rhyme.) 


	20. Senile Sages Everywhere!

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. (Review). Nothing special to warn about this chapter. (Review) Except maybe some subliminal messages. (Review.)  
  
Author's note: Ouch, took me a little longer than I hoped to get this chapter out, sorry people! Though I don't know why I apologise, because everyone seems to think I actually update quickly! (Wow. I like the SD3 fandom; we're so much less demanding..) Thanks for your patience all the same - university has me run ragged. They actually expect us to work! Can you believe it?! I was shocked too. Really, I don't know how they stay in business.  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: I admire your ability to always review even when you encounter difficulties (sniffs - it brings a tear to my eye). I'm flattered if you think a serious style suits my writing, lucky you my next SD3 fic is a serious one (if I ever actually finish this one or get up the courage to post that one). Thanks for your review as always, and everybody vote 1 for Carlie as president!  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: Thanks a bunch. You rock.  
  
Ff.net surfer: I was just kidding, really, I'm not a fibber, or even a black-mailer (contrary to popular belief). Go Hawk/Riesz pairings! (shhh, make sure Laine doesn't see you). Obviously you haven't read any of my earlier author's notes, because if you did (why do I bother? Oh why?) you'd know that the ultimate pairing in this fic will be Hawk/Angela, as for any other pairings it's undecided. Hope you don't mind, thanks for the review!  
  
Staci/Nadia: Woohoo, I'm an adjective now! I enjoy stating the obvious (I do it way too much in real life) so lots of fun there. Glad you liked that scene, it was fun to write (authors shouldn't have that much fun, really). I have to take any shortcuts I can here, like making it so that they don't have to go back to the Black Market because. well.. This fic is becoming really, really long. I would kind of like to finish it before I get hit by a meteorite in a couple of years. Hope you like this chapter too, thanks as always for your great review!  
  
WhiteWizard: New reviewer alert! Hello, welcome, and ta muchly.  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Yeah, sorry about that, but I just can't write Kevin (which is kind of why he's said about three sentences in twenty chapters). Argh, ANOTHER favourite character of yours? (The stress, the stress!) Oooh, we're having a free plug session! Everybody prepare themselves for Kurai's next fic!  
  
Solarious: I do make an effort to occasionally take notice of the reviewers.. Especially seeing as you go to so much effort! (As you will see.) I may yet put Carlie in the ghost ship due to popular demand, but, well. it kind of depends how much I trouble I have writing it. Diamond Missiles, though, is quite within my capabilities. And who WOULDN'T add the Black Rabite? (Filthy rotten invincible stinking evil..) Wow, Navarre exists! I must go there one day, just to say I did. Thanks as always for your great review!  
  
Lj7: Okay, no more rhyming. Thanks for dropping a line in. (Whoops, I didn't just do it again, did I? Arhg, I suck!)  
  
Bittersweet: I feel so undeserving of such flattery.. You're all going to give me a big head if you keep this up! (Watch it expand like a heated balloon..) Thanks a mil, though, hope you like the chapter.  
  
Wingnut: (Looks around nervously for another sacrifice big enough to keep Minerva busy). Here, have this Tyrannosaurus. Detours are boring, hence why I try and find ways to cut them out of the fic as much as possible! (Then ruin all my good work by including two chapters where nothing happens!) Wait, I missed St Patrick's Day? St Patrick's Day happened?! And I didn't know about it? NOOOO! Maybe I should be asking when Easter is, or I might miss that holiday, too. (Darn. I already wasted April Fool's Day as well.)  
  
Slash the Ironman: Laws of physics are nothing to me! Nothing! (Not when you have the help of the Mana Goddess!). No! No! Don't hurt me! Another chapter is here! Where's my guardian Tzenker now?  
  
Truewind: I'm relieved I managed to keep our two stories different, I have been somewhat paranoid about that, and will remain so until I can get past where you are at your story point (starts typing faster). Yeah, there's too many characters! (Thus why I periodically ditch all the add-ons, I'm so transparent..) As for Hawk's portrayal - I'm one of six girls in a class of one hundred. LOTS of material. Thanks very much, though, hope you keep reading and reviewing! Keep up your own good work too!  
  
Ack, I spent forever on Response to Reviewers again! Sorry! Well, you guys deserve it. Hope you like. Please don't forget to review.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 20 - Senile Sages Everywhere!  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Angela stood, and dusted herself off. Getting shot out of the cannon just wasn't a big deal anymore - it was almost becoming boring. She was annoyed at how much falling she did seem to be experiencing lately. Lucky her, though, this time she got to land on Duran, though technically that didn't do anything to arouse any jealousy, at least, not from Duran.  
  
They weren't far from Jad at all - considering the huge distance they'd come Angela was impressed by the uncanny accuracy the device was getting. Despite having homocidal tendencies, Bon Voyage apparently was quite the inventor after all. She made a mental note to thank him after she had strangled him.  
  
Hawk stretched nearby. "Well, what do you think, go see Don Perigon now or later?"  
  
Duran scratched his head in classic puzzlement. "But... um.... well I never thought to ask for more specific instructions to the Chibikko village."  
  
Angela, Hawk and the Fairy sighed in unison.  
  
"Maybe when we use the Minimize Hammer the path will be revealed to us!" Hawk suggested.  
  
"That's crazy, Hawk, while we're at it maybe Koren will commit suicide and Carlie will give herself a hernia hefting that morningstar," Angela scoffed.  
  
"Do you have a better idea, Angie?"  
  
"I think it's a good idea!" the Fairy announced, having emerged from safe sanctuary once again to throw her usual two cents into the argument.  
  
Giving up as the odds stacked against her, Angela threw her arms up into the air in frustration. "Fine then! Don't listen to the royal Princess who has more education than the rest of you put together! Turn us into Chibikkos!"  
  
Hawk pulled out the hammer and handed it to Duran. Another long silence ensued.  
  
"Um.... how do you work it?" Duran asked.  
  
Another question they had obviously forgotten to ask in their haste to ditch Riesz, Kevin and Carlie. "Maybe you do some sort of chant with it?" Hawk suggested.  
  
Duran held it up to the sunlight. "Maybe it has some instructions inscribed on it?"  
  
Impatient, Angela snatched the weird hammer from the Knight. "What's wrong with you two? It's a hammer! And hammers are used like this!" Gleefully, she turned and smacked Hawk on the head with the hammer. Retribution for his earlier comments and for kissing Riesz! Maybe justice did exist after all.... the only other thing it would take to restore Angela's faith in the world would be the untimely deaths of Koren and Carlie and a kiss from Duran.  
  
Only partially to her surprise, there was a blinding flash of light, and Hawk was gone. After a long moment, Angela actually realised he was not gone, but in fact very, very small.  
  
After restraining the urge to step on the tiny Hawk waving his arms at her, Angela tapped Duran on the head with the hammer much more gently, yet still having the same effect, then doing it to herself last. In a blinding flash of light, the entire world shrunk around her, and fortunately, the hammer shrunk too.  
  
"Wow," Angela said, "Grass is a lot deeper when you're only an inch tall."  
  
"That's not half of it," Hawk said with a grin, seemingly not at all perturbed by either the whack on the head or the fact that he was now Chibikko size. "Look over there - if that's not the entrance to a village of tiny people, I don't know what is." Considering there was a half- overgrown pathway that they probably would have confused with an oversized ant track previously, along with a minature well-hidden sign pointing 'this way to Chibikko village', Angela was not terribly impressed with his powers of deduction. Duran, though, was busy complimenting on Hawk for finding their way. Angela fumed - she didn't get ANY compliments for figuring out how to use the hammer!  
  
"Of course you didn't, Princess, any solution involving violence is the wrong answer!"  
  
Angela whirled, ready to unleash her righteous indignation upon the Fairy - only to find the insect was not quite so insect-like anymore.  
  
The Princess blinked. "Fairy- you- you got big!"  
  
The Fairy looked cross. It was truly strange to be the same height as her. "No, you just shrank! I didn't have time to get back into Duran's head before you went hammer-happy!"  
  
Angela brandished the now-miniaturized Chibikko hammer. "I can help you out!"  
  
The Fairy stepped away crossly. "No thank you! I'm much more delicate than you!"  
  
Hawk, though, was wasting no time. Sidling up to the Fairy, he said, "Wow, Fairy, I never realised you were so beautiful! Now that we're the same height, do you want to go out for dinner sometime?"  
  
The Fairy looked at loss with this situation, so Angela decided to do the insect a rare favour and thwack Hawk on the head with her cane. "Pervert! You even hit on magical beings from the Mana Holyland now?! Don't you have ANY standards?!"  
  
Said magical being from the Mana Holyland looked offended. "What are you implying, Princess Angela?"  
  
"Never mind, just get back inside Duran's head where you belong," Angela ordered.  
  
"I can't!" She wailed. "His head is too small!"  
  
Well, that was true. Oh, wait, their sudden size indifference was what she was referring to. That was a problem.  
  
"I'll just have to wait until he's big again," she said with a pout, crossing her delicate arms.  
  
"I don't mind," Hawk said.  
  
Dammit, she couldn't try and flirt with Hawk to make Duran like her in this situation! Who would have thought the FAIRY would be competition?! "Come on, let's hurry and find Don Perigon, you can try your stupid pick-up lines on the Fairy later."  
  
"Eeek, Angie, don't let him near me!" The Fairy shrieked, moving to hide behind the now-miniature Princess.  
  
"Since when did YOU start calling me Angie, too, huh?" Angela exclaimed indignantly. "Just because we're the same size now doesn't give you the right!"  
  
"But you let Hawk call you Angie!" The Fairy protested.  
  
Angela wasn't quite sure what to say to that. After a longer silence than healthy, Angela finally said, "That's only because he's a jerk and arguing with him is a waste of my invaluable wit."  
  
Duran began to lead the way along the path into the Chibikko village. The Fairy continued to dog Angela's every step, keeping a safe distance from Hawk who watched them with a big grin, no doubt enjoying annoying the deity as much as she enjoyed annoying everyone else. Angela was seriously contemplating using her staff on the being, though, seeing as now she could finally do it without actually killing her. Before she could enact her plan, though, Hawk had the indecendy to interrupt her.  
  
"Fairy," Hawk said after a moment, "I hate to break it to you, but you're a little obvious. If you can't hide in Duran's head, can't you make yourself invisible or something?"  
  
The Fairy blinked, as she realised that indeed that she would instantly give them away as not being true Chibikko - the faint glow and giant wings were a little obvious. "Oh, I forgot. I CAN turn myself invisible though! Watch me disappear!" She winked out of existence. Angela rolled her eyes, wondering why the Goddess's chosen emissary hadn't revealed that trick days ago.  
  
They emerged into a small clearing fillied with stumps of small trees that had features making them look disturbingly like houses. It was difficult to remember that these huts would probably crunch underfoot without much of a second glance. How on earth could such a small sage become so famous? Really, the librarians at Rolante obviously had too much time on their hands if they knew this much about great sages. After all, EVERYONE knew about the High Priest of Wendel but Don Perigon? How good could this guy be if Angela hadn't even heard of him before?  
  
In the centre of the clearing an elerdy Chibikko with a beard and frighteningly bushy eyebrows sat and hummed to himself, eyes closed. Seeing as no one else seemed to be around, they approached him, first. "Excuse me, sir," Duran inquired politely, "Do you know where we can find Don Perigon?"  
  
The old Chibikko turned and looked at them, frowning in deep thought. Finally, he smiled and said, "Don Perigon? Of course! He ought to be inside!"  
  
Uncomfortable silence number three hundred and twenty two since they had left on their quest. "Um, inside where?" Angela asked, appalled at the small multitude of houses that all looked almost indentical.  
  
The old geezer waved his hand around airily. "Oh, somewhere, somewhere! You'll find him I'm sure!" He then resumed walking in a figure-of-eight pattern, whistling some nondescript tune.  
  
Sighing, Angela moaned, "I just knew something like this would happen. This could take hours!"  
  
"May as well get started, this old man won't be much help by the looks of it," Duran advised.  
  
"Just so long as Don Perigon doesn't decide to send us on some endless quest too," the magician grumbled.  
  
So began the tiresome and tedious task of entering each of the Chibikko houses. This mightn't have been so bad if in every single house they entered, some Chibikko hadn't decided to invite their visitors for tea, where they'd wind up having a lengthy discussion of how great Don Perigon was and just how DID they do that with their hair? Chibikko were quite tiresome creatures; Angela began to wonder whether being small just made people annoying. It certianly explained a great deal about Carlie and the Fairy.  
  
"Don Perigon? He's not here. But since you're here, why not have some biscuits?! I made them myself!"  
  
They were too hungry, not to mention broke, to turn down free food, so another half an hour later they came to the last house they had checked. The Fairy, still having turned herself invisible, muttered something somewhere off to the right about how long this was taking.  
  
"Shut up, or you'll give us away," Angela hissed in the Fairy's general direction. "He has to be in HERE for sure! Where else could he be?"  
  
With that, the trio determinedly entered the final house, this one just about as identical as all the others. A Chibikko sat at the table, drinking what looked like a cup of tea.  
  
"Alright, Don Perigon! We've come for your help!" Angela demanded, slamming her hands down on to the table.  
  
The Chibikko blinked in confusion. "Don Perigon? Me? I'm very flattered you confuse me for Don Perigon, but I'm afraid he's not here."  
  
Agape, Angela moaned, "He's not here either? We've wasted forever going to all these houses?! Where is this guy?! It's like he doesn't WANT to see us! Does he already know we're here?!"  
  
"I think he's outside," the Chibikko offered helpfully. "He has a beard."  
  
Wait a minute.... only one of the damn Chibikko's they'd come across had a beard! Then that meant....  
  
"Would you like some tea?" invited the Chibikko.  
  
"No thanks, some other time maybe! Come on, Hawk, Duran! We're going to have words with a certain senile old geezer!"  
  
Angela stomped out of the house, the Chibikko casually returning to drinking his tea. Hawk and Duran ran after her, lest she lose her temper and start beating the living daylights out of Don Perigon.  
  
The Chibikko in question was sitting serenely rested against one of the trees, drawing circles with his stick in the dirt. He completely ignored their approach, until Angela halted and announced, "Don Perigon, I assume!"  
  
"Oh please, call me Don Perry!" the elderly Chibikko asked.  
  
Almost choking on frustration, Angela stated emphatically, "You were Don Perigon all this time and you never told us?!"  
  
"Please missy, call me Don Perry! Now, what can I help you nice folks with? Some annoying humans harrassing you?"  
  
Sighing and gritting her teeth, Angela let Duran take over lest she decide to test out miniature Diamond Missiles, and tried to focus instead on the sage's bushy eyebrows. Were the requirements for becoming a famous sage to be old, senile, and have bushy eyebrows?  
  
"Um.... well you see....," Duran stuttered, obviously realising that in order to ask for information they'd be revealing their status as 'annoying humans' and very well might get turned away, but was clearly reluctant and lacking the creative ability to tell a lie. Hawk came to his rescue.  
  
"The Chibikko village in Rolante has been invaded by vicious mice!" Hawk announced melodramatically. "Us survivors have been forced into hiding! We need to know how to take back our village!"  
  
By the Goddess, how many unsavoury skills did they thief have? They all mentally added Creative Lying to Hawk's list of talents along with Thievery, Spying, and Dramatic Entries.  
  
Don Perigon stroked his beard thoughtfully. Then, he began to speak in a wizened tone. "First, you must swim to the bottom of the ocean, and collect three different samples of red seaweed. Then steal three feathers off a Tzenker and boil the feathers and the seaweed them in the juice of a Navarre desert cactus and leave to ferment for six months!"  
  
Angela was flabbergasted. "What on earth will that do?"  
  
The Chibikko smiled widely. "It makes a very nice beverage!"  
  
"Don Perry sir," Duran said, "That doesn't really help our village." Nor did it even sound tasty, but they all tactfully avoided saying that.  
  
The elderly sage frowned at this. "You're right, I suppose it doesn't. Well, you could try this then: First, go to the Wind Mana Stone and receive Jinn's blessing. Once Jinn has given you his power, go to the field of the sleeping flowers on the Path to the Heavens and use the wind to spread the pollen into Rolante Castle! The Navarre ninjas will all fall asleep you'll retake the castle easily! How's that for a plan, huh?"  
  
It was a damn good one. Even if he was an annoying senile old man, he knew his strategies. But wait a minute..... "How did you know about Rolante?"  
  
Don Perigon laughed. "Because I am Don Perigon! Omniprescent, omnipotent, and omnivorous! That, and you smell like humans. You think a great sage like I can't tell?"  
  
Hawk blinked. "Omnivorous?"  
  
Gee, Don Perigon sure was proud of himself, but they'd received the information they wanted, so who really cared? Apparently, Duran did. "Sir, if you knew we were humans, why did you still help us?"  
  
The sage looked slightly shifty. "Well, I normally wouldn't help any annoying humans, but I sensed the presence of Mana about you three.... and especially around that pretty lady trying to be invisible over there-" Somewhere off to the side, there was an 'eep!' from the Fairy. "-so I figured you must be alright. Intuition, a must for all sages! Please, go forth and save Mana!" Then the old sage promptly fell asleep.  
  
Crazy, crazy old man. "Come on, let's get out of here and get back to Rolante! I don't want to hang around these weird Chibikkos any longer than I have to!" Angela ordered.  
  
The Fairy shimmered back into proper existence, though her invisibility trick was wearing off anyway. What a shame. The four of them hurried along the path leading out of the village.  
  
"It took you long enough," the Fairy commented crossly.  
  
"It's not our fault old sages get kicks out of sending people on long boring quests!" Angela retorted, temper already worn short by the many wasted hours of that afternoon.  
  
Angela was so intent on their argument that she didn't even realise their situation until she heard Duran's strangled cry. Whirling to see what had given her beloved such a fright, Angela shrieked as they were faced with the sight of - a giant rabite!  
  
It was HUGE! A giant yellow, slobbering creature! The oddly cute monster was now more akin to a monstrosity. Of course! They were still Chibikko size! How could she have forgotten?!  
  
"Angie! Change us back before it thinks we're dinner!" Hawk yelled, running for cover as the huge beast began to move.  
  
Angela threw the hammer at Hawk's head, who upon impact grew instantly large in a flash of light. Picking up the weapon from Hawk's monstrous feet, she once again tapped Duran's head. The instant Duran was proper size, the Fairy zipped back into her sactuary. Angela hit herself on the head last, and was relieved to be returned to normal size. Hawk had since dismembered the rabite since the size issue had been rectified. It had still been a heart-stopping, if brief, experience. Angela was suddenly overcome with a profound sense of respect for Chibikkos. Rabites in packs were certainly dangerous, but the prospect of a rabite that could single- handedly destroy your village? Don Perry must have been quite a strategist after all if he'd managed to protect their village for all these years! Didn't make him any less crazy, but then the Queen of Reason herself wasn't all that sane these days either.  
  
Speaking of which.... "Hey, we have a fool-proof master plan now, let's get back to Rolante and get this over with then!" Angela announced. After their brush with Koren, she was quite certain that Wisp and Gnome's magic alone weren't going to be enough to ensure her survival, much less victory.  
  
Duran scratched his head. "Well, I suppose since we're too far from Maia we'll just have to catch a boat from Jad to get there. The Beastmen are gone, right?"  
  
"Let's just hope that Jad has boats that go to Palo," Hawk agreed, dusting himself off and once again re-sheathing his kodachi in his usual eerie manner. He didn't look altogether thrilled with the prospect of having to face that particular city again.  
  
Fortunately it was a short walk to Jad, but as they were approaching the docks, another thought occurred to them. "Wait a minute," Angela said, "We're out of money again."  
  
This was a perpetual problem. As usual in this situation, they turned to Hawk, who appeared to be deep in thought.  
  
"Well," Angela prompted, thinking the silence had stretched on much longer than usual.  
  
Finally, the thief opened his amber-coloured eyes. "Angie- are you wearing a bra?"  
  
Reddening, Angela raised her staff and let out an almighty, "HOW DARE YOU ASK THAT? DIAMOND MISSILE!"  
  
Almost immediately, three gem missiles came spiralling down from the sky - Hawk somehow dodged them, though Duran did put his hands over his eyes, certain that his friend was shishkabob this time. Hawk, though, with his uncanny luck, evaded each of them, then proceed to attempt to pry them from the ground. Once he'd recovered the gemstone spars, he waved cheerily and ran off. "I'll be back in ten minutes! Don't go anywhere!"  
  
"Like we can afford to!" Angela retorted, still fuming and not entirely sure what the thief was doing. How was she supposed to flirt with this guy when it was so demeaning? The lengths she was going to get to garner Duran's attention! He'd better appreciate this!  
  
True to his word, ten minutes later Hawk reappeared with a small bundle of money. "Look, Angie, money!"  
  
"Good work, what poor sap did you steal it off this time?" Angela snorted, turning her nose up at the thief, not quite ready to forgive him for his comment.  
  
"Well, technically you. Diamond Missiles, why didn't I think of it before?! I sold them!"  
  
Angela blinked, then began to grin. "Why, we'll have an endless supply of money!"  
  
Duran slapped Hawk on the back, making the thief wince as usual. "Good thinking Hawk! That's genius!"  
  
Suddenly, though, an angry shopkeeper came running after them. "Hey! Stop thief! You filthy crook! Selling me fake diamonds! They just dissolve!"  
  
Angela grew pale. "They disappear?"  
  
The Fairy shimmered into existence, perched on Duran's shoulder. "Well, it is magic. Most magics don't hang around forever, just their effects."  
  
"Y'know, as much as I enjoy hanging around discussing the physics of magic, in the thieving industry this is usually where us experts run away," Hawk suggested.  
  
"Let's run for it!" Duran announced. The trio began pelting along the docks, where, just their luck, a captain was announcing the last boarding call for a ship setting sail for Palo. For once, timing was in their favour! Jad must have one of the most efficient docks in the world.  
  
"Here you go, cap'n, one way to Palo thanks!" Hawk announced, practically throwing the money at the sailor and leaping on board, the captain very surprised and tipping his hat at them, then waving for the crew to cast off. Angela and Duran followed the agile thief, and they all sank to the deck of the ship in relief as the tubby merchant, after obviously spending too much time time appraising jewels and not enough exercising, had grown too puffed to catch the ship before it pulled away from the dock.  
  
"At this rate we're all going to be blacklisted along with Hawk here," Angela sighed, straightening her hair.  
  
"Well, at least we're heading back to Palo," Duran said, trying be optimistic.  
  
Hawk made a face. "And this is cause for celebration why?"  
  
He had a point, Angela mused. Back to Carlie, Kevin and that wench Riesz. But on the other hand..... when she had Jinn's magic......  
  
Hawk looked over at the Princess, a slightly worried expression creasing his brow. "Angie, why are you staring at me like that?"  
_____________________  
  
Blah blah blah blah REVIEW! It's really old, I know, but c'mon.. for me? Thanks a bunch dude. 


	21. The More Things Change, the More they St...

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. The regular innuendo, general mayhem and sanity-damaging material, as per normal. Enjoy, enjoy!  
  
Author's note: Hey, I've just been informed that it's Easter and I have train tickets! (I so love catching trains. so many hours of telling boring seatmates silly stories of my life that never actually happened. I think I'll get into the movie business this time.) Thus I admit that I kind of rushed this chapter, and probably aren't too happy with it but I hope you like it all the same. I also wish to warn you that because of this train- ticket-derived absence, in addition to coming up to the end of my Trimester, updates may further be sparsified (note: not a real word, please don't use at home) even further, but in about a month or so we should be running back on full steam. I make so many futile promises. Oh, Happy Easter I guess..  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Staci/Nadia: I have only you to thank for that. Quite frankly, I never understood Don Perry at all. I'm not too sure what possessed me to make Hawk flirt with the Fairy, perhaps it was my evil other personality, but people seemed to like it so it's all good.. Thanks as usual for your great review, and enjoy your Easter.  
  
Solarious: I did like your song, of course, having it in text just isn't the same.. The fireplace idea is a good one, but I thought that you had hero-impersonating shadows in the Mana Holyland so I thought I'd save it for then (if I get there in this lifetime). You have a point, though, since when DID I care about rules? Hmm.. You may have just inadvertedly begun an avalanche, Solarious.. Heh heh, I love the dialogue you wrote between Bigieu and Hawk, but I just couldn't use it because it's yours and I actually already have some ideas about Bigieu, but I'll certainly be considering it. thank you for such a constructive musing session!  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: I was wondering why you always seemed to be a chapter behind in reviewing - I can't believe you go to the trouble of reviewing even chapters you miss! (Cries- I don't deserve a reader as good as you.) Hmm, lots of people seemed to like those bits (scribbles on notepad - this could be helpful in taking over the world some day, I'm sure of it..) Yes, we have class changes, and I must ask people, do they want Riesz and company to class change as well? I wasn't originally going to incorporate that, but if people really want it I can.. One step closer to Rogue, Rosa, one step closer..  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: New reviewer! Throw a parade! I admit that your explanation of this fic's humour confused me (no easy feat, I take my hat off to you) sorry about the classes, I should have held the votes a little later than I did in retrospect. As for Kevin, well, he's only said about two sentences thus far, so.. I do not deserve your high praise, but this unworthy one is grateful. Hope you keep reading!  
  
ChibiCharizard: Actually, Solarious deserves credit for the idea of selling the Diamond Missiles. Liked your random rant, it brought some disturbing truths about RPGs to light for me. I think when I finally graduate and get a job at Squaresoft (dreaming? Me? And yes, I AM going to rule the world one day.) I will have to address these issues you speak of. (Walks off, highly disturbed.) Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Wingnut: I never knew that Tyrannosauruses could talk.. (Or is it Tyrannosauri?) Glad you liked.. Um (flips through thesaurus) I now express my gratitude for your kind-hearted appraisal of this work.  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: I hate to be anywhere nearby after you get your hands on all that Easter chocolate. But thank you for your review - look, it's Mr Whippy the Ice-Cream Man! (Sneaks off with a cup of sugar.)  
  
Empress Faria: Another new reviewer, welcome! Lots of people liked the omnivorous bit, I'm glad, considering it was one of those things that kind of just happened. I am humbled by your high praise, and amazed at being introduced to the very first reviewer NOT in love with Carlie (this calls for an EXTRA parade). As for your English, well, heck, you speak it better than I do. Thanks a mil.  
  
Slash The Ironman: Yes. Tzenker arrives. And it will protect me! (I hope). Uh oh, it seems as though many of my reviewers are developing split personalities thanks to this fic. (Holds out rubber businessman). Stay back! I have a lawyer!  
  
Ff.net surfer: I was just kidding. I really did send that E-Mail to your brother. Are you checking under your pillow each night for booby-traps and spiders? Thanks for the review. And have a happy Easter with your brother. Yes, happy..  
  
ANOTHER extremely long response to reviewers, jeez, I'm out of control! But thanks for all your support guys, it means a lot, it really does! Hope you enjoy this chapter and have a good holiday, those of you lucky enough to have one that's more than four days long (grumbles).  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 21 - The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
After yet ANOTHER tiresome boat ride to Palo - as painful as the cannon 'experience' was, they all had to admit it was about five hundred times faster - they were finally nearing their destination. It was late evening, the sun having sunk into the ocean, and the coast was coming into view.  
  
Angela emerged from her cabin and stretched. Duran and Hawk were talking by the side of the boat. Curiousity piqued, the Princess casually ambled over to them, and was none too surprised to see the Fairy perched on Duran's shoulder joining in the conversation.  
  
The magical being turned on the magician as she arrived. "Angela! About time you got here! We're trying to figure out how to get Hawk through Palo again."  
  
Hawk was looking annoyed. "I am not dressing up in some stupid disguise."  
  
Duran looked like he agreed. "It wasn't a very good idea, Fairy, I'm really sorry."  
  
The tiny deity wrung her minscule hands. "I'm not good at planning these things! The Mana Goddess never really thought we'd have to worry about things like this!"  
  
"Maybe not, but dressing up like a rabite? That was just crazy," Hawk muttered. "If not for the fact that they don't have human-sized rabites, then for the fact that they don't have rabites in Rolante."  
  
"They're a lucky kingdom all right," Angela agreed. Even in the harsh Altenan snowfields one always had the chance of coming across the odd rabite, as unusual as it was. Of course, in the Altenan snowfields rabites were usually the least of one's troubles.  
  
The docks were looming close. Hawk sighed. "Look, I can get through Palo, but it'll be a lot easier if I just split up and meet you on the other side on the 'Path to the Heavens' as Riesz calls it."  
  
Angela blinked. "What exactly do you plan on doing different this time?"  
  
"Um.... I was going to get you to create a diversion, Angie! Would you mind flashing the guards for me?"  
  
Face burning red, Angela forwent her staff and instead belted the thief with her fist instead. "I'm gonna hit you!"  
  
Hawk massaged his head. "I wish you'd tell me that BEFORE you hit me!"  
  
Well, in a way having Hawk run off for a while would be a good thing, right? Quality time alone with Duran at last! -For just a little while, anyway. And come to think of it, the damn Fairy would still be along, however it was still a good opportunity. But then, why did she feel so uneasy? Did she actually care that the thief might get caught without backup and be killed?  
  
That loser, no way, Angela thought stubbornly, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, the Fairy looking at her worriedly. The Princess fervently hoped that the being wasn't using her eerie telepathic powers again, damn Mana tricks! Well, she really couldn't pick on Mana tricks, since those same Mana tricks were among her slowly growing arsenal. Still, it would have been more comforting to have the thief around for protection, if nothing else. Duran might have been unbeatable against other soldiers and swordsmen, but ninja fought dirty.  
  
Of course, she realised belatedly, that was exactly why Hawk was taking a one-person detour through Palo. The blank-minded ninja wouldn't even bother them if Hawk wasn't there to attract their interest. He was risking his own neck to save theirs, in a way.  
  
Once again shaking her head to clear it of various confusing thoughts, Angela finally said, "If you can manage it without a diversion, then go for it. It makes a lot more sense than dressing up in a rabite suit, of which where I don't even know we'd get one." The Princess eyed the Fairy who groaned in embarrassment. Angela was determined that even if it was one stupid idea, that one stupid idea would be used to humiliate the Fairy for a very long time....  
  
The boat finally pulled up at the docks, and they hurriedly disembarked, thankfully no ninajs confronting them this time. Once they were back in the shadows, Hawk gave them a cheery wave. "This is where I leave." With no further ado than that, the thief silently vaulted on to the nearest roof, using a barrel as a step, and began to stealithy run along the rooftops.  
  
Angela and Duran watched blankly. "Well, I'll be," Angela commented at last. "I didn't even think of that."  
  
Duran nodded his agreement. "None of the ninjas have really been watching the sky, have they? We'd better hurry through Palo if we're going to meet him on the other side of town."  
  
Angela smiled, restraining the urge to latch on to the Knight's arm, knowing that such flirtation had already failed her many times already. They hurried through Palo, once or twice catching a brief glimpse of a figure darting over the rooftops not far away, before losing sight of the agile thief altogether. Their passage was unobstructed this time, but they didn't dally anyway, Angela still feeling her skin crawl at the sight of the expressionless ninjas.  
  
She didn't truly relax until they had made their way out of Palo and on to the Path to the Heavens. Sure enough, there was Hawk, waiting for them with that wastefully cheerful smile ever plastered on his face. Angela felt an immense wave of relief at the sight of him, and never being one to miss an opporunity, gave him a generous hug, hoping to invoke some sort of reaction from Duran. "Hawk!"  
  
"Gee, Angie, I was only gone an hour, but I missed you too," Hawk said.  
  
Apparently her ploy to make Duran jealous was again ignored as the Knight gave Hawk a cheerful slap on the back. "That's a relief. Getting around on the rooftops, what DIDN'T they teach you in the thieves' guild?"  
  
Hawk rubbed the back of his head, a brief scowl dancing across his face before being replaced by the usual grin. "How to resist hypnotism, apparently."  
  
Before the usual uncomfortable silence could settle, Angela grabbed Hawk's arm and began to lead the trio up the slope once again. "Let's not sit around discussing the mechanics of sneaking through towns under siege, let's go get Jinn already!"  
  
The Fairy emerged from hiding, clearing her throat. "Um, shouldn't we go talk to Riesz in the underground resistance first?"  
  
The Princess dismissed the notion with an airy wave of her hand. "Nah, why bother? It's our quest to find Jinn, not theirs! Besides, do you REALLY want to have Riesz and Carlie and probably Kevin too wanting to tag along?"  
  
The Fairy thought this over at length. "You have a point. And they wouldn't be able to benefit from Jinn's blessing anyway...."  
  
Duran was inclined to disagree. "But their assistance wouldn't go astray - a soldier from Rolante's skills in battle would be helpful."  
  
"That's not their only skills," Hawk remarked with a devlish grin.  
  
Angela swung at the thief for the implied comment, but he knew it was coming and quickly sidestepped it as usual. Heedless, the magician continued, "Riesz'd be too busy organizing her army for the re-take. Let her be! She has enough stress without having to worry about you!"  
  
"What about the tiny terror and Riesz's lapdog?" Hawk pointed out.  
  
Duran, obviously unable to think of any reply to this, simply shrugged. The Fairy muttered something along the lines of those two being part of the stress.  
  
"Get over it already, we can handle this one on our own! Heads up, here comes one of those birds!" Angela announced.  
  
So the second trip up the 'Path to the Heavens', not being very heavenly, passed somewhat uneventfully with the exception of the odd flock of needlebirds harrassing them. They were lucky enough to not encounter any patrols of ninajs, thus not having to endure another treacherous climb. Under Riesz's direction, they eventually entered a cave that they hoped to be the Corridor of the Wind.  
  
"More caves," Angela muttered, annoyed. "Faiiiiiiry? We need a lamp!"  
  
The small deity scowled. "I refuse to be demoted to a light source again! Just use Wisp's magic, Angela, it's a simple enough spell!"  
  
"Yeah, but nowhere near as fun," Angela pouted, but gave in and called upon a miniscule amount of Wisp's power to light their way. Leading the way, she cautiously stepped through the entrance to caves, and was surprised to be buffeted by a slight breeze. More disturbing was the painful moan that echoed throughout the long cave.  
  
"What's that sound?" Duran asked, cautiously resting a hand on the hilt of his sword.  
  
The Fairy was smiling, obviously sensing Mana presence nearby. "It's the wind howling through the corridor. Jinn, the elemental of the Wind, resides near here."  
  
Angela snorted. "And here I was just thinking it was the sound of air passing through Hawk's hollow skull."  
  
"I had to make my skull hollow so I could fill it with more thoughts of you, Angie," Hawk replied, winking in the Princess's general direction.  
  
Duran's eyebrow twitched. Angela was almost gleeful - she didn't even have to flirt herself anymore, all she had to do was leave it to Hawk and Duran would get jealous! "You flatter me, Hawk. Remind me to give you lots to think about later," Angela retorted slyly.  
  
"Is anyone but me paying attention to the floating zombie Knight coming our way?" The Fairy shrieked.  
  
Duran dispatched the phatom knight without too much difficulty. "I guess if those things are wandering around here, Jinn and the Wind Mana Stone must be in trouble. Princess, please lead the way, and hurry!"  
  
Well, hurry wasn't the word they really followed as they ambled somewhat aimlessly around the caves, though they did seem to be working their way vaguely upwards. Angela was attempting to follow her magical senses towards the Mana Stone, which the Fairy assured them was nearby, but they kept running into walls and dead-ends and wound up having to take quite a roundabout way to get even close to the stone. Not to mention that all the while their way was impeded by zombies, needlebirds, and some weird sort of possessed magic armour.  
  
Needless to say, the Princess was becoming frustrated by their inability to reach a destination that she could sense on the other side of the wall. "I've had it with this! Stupid walls! HOLY BALL!"  
  
The magician used Wisp's magic to literally blast a hole in the wall. The thief and Knight stood by, eyebrows raised.  
  
"It worked, didn't it?" Angela protested, stepping outside onto a previously concealed plateua. Just a stone's throw away was another cave entrance, which Angela was certain she could feel Mana energy coming from.  
  
Hawk and Duran diplomatically decided not to comment on that, but stepped through the breakage all the same. Almost immediately, a power of the wind escalated so much that it felt as though they were about to be blown off the mountain. The Fairy shrieked, leaping and disappearing into Angela's head, being the nearest, before the gale could blow her away.  
  
"I'm pretty sure Jinn's not far away!" Angela called out over the screaming wind.  
  
"You think, Angie?" Hawk called back sarcastically. The Princess bit back a growl. How was she supposed to know what the damn thief was thinking? He would flirt with her one minute, insult her the next! Ah, who cared what he thought? Duran was all that mattered.  
  
'Hypocrite,' the Fairy commented from within the sanctuary of the Princess's head, obviously not frazzled enough to stop making snide comments.  
  
'Since when did I care about what you think?' Angela retorted, leading the way towards the next cavern, being careful of her footing in the powerful gale. Hawk and Duran followed equally carefully, not relaxing until they reached the cave.  
  
Stepping inside, Angela re-ignited her simple illumination spell on the tip of her staff, but found it wasn't necessary. The entire cavern was glowing. "Is that.....?"  
  
"The Mana Stone," the Fairy confirmed, as they all gazed in awe at the wedge-shaped floating crystalline creation. It was their first time actually seeing a Mana Stone after all, the opportunity being denied them for the Mana Stones of Light and Earth. Angela could feel Mana's energy soaking the cavern, but somehow, something didn't feel quite right....  
  
Looking suddenly panicked, the Fairy floated over to the stone, zooming up and down. "It can't be! No! We're too late!"  
  
"What? Too late?" Duran asked, again resting his hand on the hilt of his sword, visibly uptight.  
  
The Fairy almost wailed in response, wringing her hands together. "The Mana Stone's energy has been released! They must have cast the spell on it already!"  
  
"That's bad, right?" Angela surmised.  
  
"More than bad! The seals on the other Mana stones will compensate for a while, but if all the Mana Stones have their energy released, then the God- Beasts will break free and the earth will be finished!" the Fairy proclaimed melodramatically.  
  
"Well, that sucks," Hawk stated empahtically.  
  
Before they could continue their uplifting discussion on how the world was going to end, though, a powerful screech sounded off to the right. Automatically turning towards the noise, Angela cursed to herself. "Jinn!"  
  
Hawk slid his kodachi from hiding, and ready for action, quickly ran over to the other side of the cave. "Footprints! Looks like a Knight of sorts, big guy," the thief assessed, glancing up at them after a moment. "Fresh. Looks like whoever released the energy on the Mana Stone just did it recently. So...."  
  
"We can't let them get away!" Duran announced, striding towards the exit of the cave.  
  
"What? What good is that going to do? Hey! Since when did we start challenging people we haven't even met yet?" Angela demanded, but her arguments fell on deaf ears. Even the Fairy looked a cross between distraught and murderous at the revelation of the state of the Mana Stone of Wind.  
  
"Look, Angie, I don't like it either but if we're going to get to the Mana Holyland and get the Goddess to help us it doesn't work having someone running around releasing the energy on the Mana Stones on us. We'd better stop them while we can," Hawk counselled her calmly.  
  
Still fuming, Angela muttered, "Fine, but whoever he is he's getting a piece of my mind."  
  
The thief smiled charmingly. "I'm sure none of us would have it any other way. You're so cute when you're angry, Angie!"  
  
Caught between denial and the inexplicable urge to blush - just hanging around Riesz was obviously a bad influence on her! - Angela opted to ignore the thief and stormed outside after Duran, cane at the ready.  
  
Once again outside, they were confronted with the sight of what had to be Jinn, the Wind Elemental, being harrassed by a Knight clad only in midnight- black armour. Angela felt an ominous shiver down the back of her spine at the sight of the black Knight, but stepped forward alongside Duran determinedly, Hawk bringing up their rear.  
  
"Hey! You! Get away from Jinn!" Duran ordered, unsheathing his sword and taking a threatening stance.  
  
The dark Knight seemed to regard them for a brief moment, tilting his head aside in a somewhat delicate manner, then shrugged and began walking away, apparently deciding they weren't worth the trouble.  
  
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"  
  
The mute black Knight insisted on ignoring them, and soon disappeared from sight. Angela wasn't sure whether to be relieved or insulted - after a long debate, settling for relieved. Duran just looked angry. However, none of them really had the chance to dwell on this for more than a moment, because the next instant, an ear-piercing shriek shattered their eardrums, obviously the same screech that had brought them running out here in the first place. Jinn seemed to have vanished somewhere along the line - probably fleeing for his sorry hide like most other Elementals and Fairies seemed to do.  
  
Led only by instinct, Angela ducked as a bird.... human... thing.... swooped by, the Princess able to feel the wind of its passage as it narrowly missed her. "What the hell?!"  
  
Duran and Hawk had both armed themselves and were at the ready now as their foe flapped her - at least, it looked vaguely female - wings and screeched at them again, the ground practically shaking from the noise and Angela feeling as though she had to fight for balance. "The Fairy's saying it's called a Tzenker!" Duran called out, fending off the slashing claws with his sword. The creature let out a shriek as the Knight sliced off two claws, and wheeled back into the sky.  
  
"I don't care what it's called! Kill it!" Angela demanded.  
  
The Knight looked frustrated. "It's out of my range."  
  
"Not out of mine!" Angela announced, calling upon Wisp's power. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
The Tzenker shrieked in pain and the balls of holy magic pummeled it, singeing its feathers. Shaking off the energy, it zoomed back down towards them. Duran slashed haphazardly ith his sword, managing to damage its wing, but the Tzenker didn't slow down. Hawk bent over backwards as it accelerated towards him - the sound of tearing fabric could be heard in the same instant, even as Hawk's kodachi raked the underbelly of the beast. Screaming and bloodied, the monster retreated back into the sky.  
  
Angela's heart leapt into her throat for an instant, but she relaxed when she saw the Tzenker had only ripped the fabric of the thief's tunic, and Hawk was untouched. Then she had to brace herself as they were buffeted with a powerful gale, obviously hinting the Tzenker had some of Jinn's power. Angela dropped to the ground to keep from falling over, Duran and Hawk doing the same.  
  
As their assailant screeched again, the magician hurriedly clambered to her feet, and held her staff high in the air. "DIAMOND MISSILE!"  
  
The Tzenker never knew what hit it as the gemstones spars all impaled it, bringing it to the ground with a decisive thump. Duran stepped up and delivered the final blow with his sword to the struggling monster. It fell limp and silent.  
  
The adrenaline rush over, Angela sank to her knees, relieved and somewhat impressed once again that they had come through. They were really getting quite good at this fighting stuff - she always knew that Duran, being Duran, could fight like a solider, but she never thought that she had it in her to fight off anything larger than a zombie or a rabite. It was starting to become a habit, even.  
  
Duran resheathed his sword, and Hawk was inspecting his loose and torn tunic with distaste. "Good thing it wasn't mine." He shrugged it off, revealing a more snug sleeveless one underneath.  
  
The Fairy energed now that the coast was clear. "Great work, team!"  
  
Angela gave the entity a dirt look. "Team? I didn't see you doing anything."  
  
"I told you its name!"  
  
"And that was so instrumental in defeating it. Why, if it weren't for you we'd have been doomed," Angela commented sarcastically.  
  
"Thank you so much!" Another voice added to the argument. Moments later, with a gust of breeze for dramatic effect, Jinn, the Elemental of Wind, appeared before them.  
  
"Let me guess, you're Jinn and the Tzenker was keeping you prisoner, right?" Angela said, hoping to avoid a lengthy preamble.  
  
The Wind spirit blinked at this frank introduction, but agreed, "Well, yes, that was the case, until the Darkshine Knight came along....." Jinn shivered. "There's something especially nasty about that Knight, I don't like the look of him."  
  
"So he's called the Darkshine Knight, huh?" Duran mused.  
  
The bumbling Wind spirit didn't seem interested in discussing that, though. "You got it! Hey, Fairy! If you're with these guys, then I guess I'm supposed to give you my power, huh? Oh, Angela over there! You can have my magic, too!" Angela once again felt the rush of gaining a new magic ability.  
  
The Princess was actually gracious enough to thank the Elemental this time.  
  
"No problem!" Jinn announced. "I failed to keep the Mana Stone safe, it's the least I can do! But even if the energy is released, you could still class change there!"  
  
Duran blinked. "Class change? Wasn't that what the High Priest of Wendel was talking about?"  
  
The Fairy nodded. "You can all become stronger by using the Mana Stone's power to class change. I think you're ready for it - you've come a long way from when I first met you already, and I think that as Mana powers wanes and the obstacles you face become more difficult you'll need it."  
  
"I'm never one to turn down more power," Angela agreed, cheerily turning to head back towards the cavern.  
  
Duran and Hawk weren't far behind, Jinn and the Fairy following at their own leisurely place, probably talking about them behind their backs.  
  
Once they were all gathered in front of the Mana Stone, Jinn and the Fairy floated to the forefront. Jinn looked at the stone somewhat sadly, but then said, "Well, I've granted you my assistance, the rest is up to you, Fairy!" In a gust of wind, the Elemental vanished from sight, though they could all still feel his presence, along with that of Wisp and Gnome. Angela gritted her teeth at this realisation - at this rate, she'd NEVER get any alone time with Duran!  
  
At least magic was worth it. Putting up with the Fairy and Carlie simply wasn't.  
  
"Duran," the Fairy suggested, "You should go first. Stand in the light of the Mana Stone, open yourself to its power, and concentrate on becoming stronger."  
  
Duran nodded, moving as directed and planting his sword in the ground, closing his eyes. Even as they watched, he seemed to glow.  
  
"You can choose your path," the Fairy continued, narrating the whole thing. "Light or Dark? It will determine how your power grows."  
  
Duran frowned, then after a prolonged moment of strain on his face, the room was encased in a blidning white light. Moments later, after Angela had blinked back all the multi-coloured spots from her eyes, Duran was standing there again, for all practical purposes appearing the same... but there was something different about him. A new sort of energy, a strength..... oh wow, Angela felt her knees just about ready to turn to jelly. He'd been hot before, but whatever this subtle change the class change had caused had a massive effect on her.  
  
The Fairy seemed to applaud his choice. "You've become a Knight, Duran! I always thought you would!"  
  
Duran blinked in momentary befuddlement. "A Knight? I thought I was already a Knight...."  
  
"In name, not in nature," the Fairy told him. Duran still looked puzzled, muttering that he felt different but otherwise.... "I'll explain it to you later," the Fairy finally amended tiredly, before turning on Hawk. "You're up next."  
  
Hawk grinned at her, then winked at Angie, casually strolling forward and mimicking Duran's move, settling into what seemed like some sort of weird desert Zen trance. The Fairy repeated her steps, saying, "Choose light or dark - do you want to become a Ranger in nature or a Ninja? The choice is yours."  
  
Another retina-scorching flash of light later, a subtly different Hawk was revealed. Again, he winked at the Princess. "I'm a Ranger! Do I get a horse? Chicks dig horses."  
  
The Princess rolled her eyes. "I can see the class cahnge has done nothing for your maturity. I thought for sure you'd be a ninja, why choose to become a Ranger?" The Fairy was busy applauding his choice, but no one took much notice.  
  
Hawk looked momentarily unsettled, distracting himself by flipping out his weapons to see if his speed or agility had changed much - which it had. "I trained most of my life to be a ninja, but after seeing what the other Navarre ninjas had become...."  
  
Nodding her head in understanding, Angela flipped her lavendar hair over her shoulder and turned on the Fairy determinedly. "Well?"  
  
"Go right ahead, do I really need to explain it?" the Fairy asked.  
  
"I guess not." Figuring it shouldn't be too difficult, the magician stepped into the light of the Mana Stone and focused her thoughts, holding out her staff as if she were in position to cast a spell. She felt power building up around her, growing stronger and stronger, but it didn't seem to be doing anything else.  
  
"Concentrate!" The Fairy ordered.  
  
"What does it look like I'm doing? Eating cake?" Angela snapped back, frowning as she attempt to center her thoughts and stop daydreaming about Duran and how much more inexplicably handsome he had become since class changing.  
  
The power seemed to at last snap into place, swirling about her. "Now choose! Dark or Light? Do you wish to become a Delvar or a Sorceress by nature?"  
  
The choice was almost entirely unconscious. Already felt her own power swell, almost as though she was growing more mature, more adept.... it was beyond description, a bigger rush that getting any of the Elementals' power! Another classic flash of light later, she knew the process was complete. The potential of magical power in her was almost dizzying she thought, compared to what she was used to. She thought she was tough before, but now Koren was a dead man!  
  
"I did it!" Angela shrieked in happiness. The Fairy merely raised an eyebrow.  
  
"A Delvar? Emphasising the power of magic rather than its purpose. Somehow I'm not surprised," the Fairy commented crossly.  
  
Angela just poked out her tongue at the minature deity. Meanwhile, Hawk was busy scrutinising her. "You know, Angela, I can't quite put my finger on it, but you look even more sexy than before."  
  
Duran was busy blushing, which Angela took to be a good sign, but more importantly, the wily now-Ranger had given her an opportunity. "Oh Hawk? Seeing as you think so highly of me, there's something I could use your help with."  
  
Bowing charitably, he replied, "It would be my pleasure, of course."  
  
Angela held out her staff, fire glinting in her eyes. "AIR BLAST!"  
  
This was going to be so much fun.  
_____________________  
  
C'mon, review, please? Don't make me beg. 


	22. This Is How You Storm a Fortress

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. General craziness ahead: Proceed with caution! The author is not responsible for any injury received whilst reading this fic (this includes the spillage of hot coffee on your lap).  
  
Author's note: I hate this chapter! I hate it with a passion. I also wanted to try and fit all of the re-take of Rolante into one chapter, but this pretty lengthy and I figured it had already been so long since I had given all of you an update (and Truewind keeps getting ahead of me, darn it!) so I figured I'd better put this one up. Hopefully you won't hate it as much as I do, and the next one will come out sooner. (Though don't be crossing fingers, I have so many assignments due in the next couple of weeks for everything that it can't be a coincidence - that kind of workload has to be engineered to break you, mere chance would not allow such cruelty! But I will not be broken! I will burn these assignments in protest!.. Ooops, maybe that wasn't such a good idea..) Okay, enough of my apologies and sob stories, I know you're not interested in that, please, read on and don't hate me for it.  
  
Response to Reviewers! (A record number of reviews for any one chapter! Thanks guys, you rock! -I leaf now- ahahahaha I'm so funny.. not.):  
  
Elalipa: GASP! You confess! Thanks a bunch for your first review (though admit it, the only reason you did was because it was taking me so long to update). I, of course, used my god-like powers to know you were reading, and was just about to send you a guilt-tripping E-Mail.. Nah, thanks for your review, glad you liked it, and welcome to response to reviewers!  
  
Solarious: I know your needle torturing wouldn't intimidate Rosa. (Right? Right Rosa? Rosa, where are you?) *Shields self* - I did like your lines but they just don't fit in! You are a great muse, though, truly! For example, I have decided to give Angela all of the Level 2 Elemental Spells, because, well, it's more fun that way. Poor, poor Hawk... Here's your payment; do I get some change? (I'm very, very broke right now.. As in, I don't have enough money for food. Ramen, ramen for everyone!)  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Ah, I always enjoy your reviews, makes it all worthwhile.. More great Hawk and Ranger action this chapter! (Well, duh - jeez I'm a moron.) Given that everyone you voted for came to pass.. Heeeey, you didn't rig the voting did you? Oh well, too late now. Despite Solarious's angry and somewhat violent denials, thank you for your museness, I'll have to think about that one, though even if I do decide to do anything it'll probably take me about thirty chapters to bring it to pass. And yes, Hawk is HOTT. And in answer to your question, I tend to choose spells in order for what I want to happen - I used Holy Ball quite a bit in this chapter, for example, because the application of Diamon Missiles or Air Blast made no sense from a writing perspective in that situation. But I don't lose sleep over it, no. Anyhow, thanks as always for your review!  
  
Cookie Pixie: Again, a lot of people liked that line (I'm so proud.) I left out the screen shakes and quaking sound in the class change, because, well.. I guess by now you probably know that I'm not a stickler for details or accuracy when it comes to this. Same goes with the hair colours and outfits - I think my poor little brain would fry if I tried to change all of that, so I left them in their original colouring and clothes. Besides, it's been a while for me too. Thank you for your review, always a pleasure to hear from you. (Holy Shampoo, LOL).  
  
WaterDragonS: Another new reviwer! Party! Obviously also doesn't read the Author's notes (why do I bother?) - we held a vote on the final class change, and Delvar's on the way to Magus - so lots of meteors raining from the sky, great fun! And Duran will retrieve the sword, no questions there. I hope that answers all of your queries, thanks very much for your review! (BTW, cool pen name.)  
  
Staci/Nadia: Thanks! (Easter Rabi was very nice to me, but then I killed it and stole its chocolate.) Hmm, costume shop.. Ideas... glad you liked it, heh heh, Hawk and Angela flirting is fun to write (I somehow think I forgot it this chapter. a testament to my lack of sleep. sorry.) That was great review, so long! I cannot do it justice. Hope to see your own fic coming along soon too.  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: SUGAR HIGH! Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee! Why, pies? For me? (Starts crying.) You are too kind. My first real meal in a week.. Thank you, so much! (And for your review, too.)  
  
Empress Faria: The sooner the class change the better, IMO. Slowly but surely seems to be how I do everything in this fic (and probably everything in life, too), oh well, I hope all of you have a lot of patience. OMG, still in shock over meeting a non-Carlie fan.. And the horror of being related to someone like her! Here, read this chapter, it might make you feel better.  
  
AC: I do not deserve your high praise, but am honoured all the same. (Blinks - NOT trite or repetitive? Are you insane? Are you insane? Are you insane?) Thanks very much, and I'll do my best to keep the grammar and everything to a high standard (though I'm sure Truewind will be able to shame me once again.)  
  
^_^ : (Suspicious of nameless smiley faces.. Oh, it's Lj7, okay then..) I also thought Hawk was cool as a Ninja Master, but that was the way the vote went! Here, more crazy not-funny humour for everyone! (I'm sure I just created some sort of senseless paradox.) Thanks for dropping a line.  
  
Truewind: If that was strained diction, then this chapter needs a chiropractor. Thanks for pointing it out to me, with your great story you've set a high standard in the world of SD3 fandom. Anyhow, 'not their only skills' was referring to the fact that they had other 'skills' other than 'battle skills' (wink wink nudge nudge, this is Hawk we're talking about). And I left the class changes short pretty much because. well, you wrote them long. Must. type.. Faster.. Dang it, how do you keep it up? You're up to the Ghost Ship now! I have no hope.. Shade (previously known as Duran the Gladiator): Thank you!  
  
ChibiCharizard: Walls suck. We should obliterate them all! (In fact, I'm going to make a computer game one day where you can do just that I think..) Well, I could use some help in taking over the world. BTW, I'm supposed to remind you not to review stories at 4am, so if it's 4am right now, stay away from the review button! (and that hot coffee) Why, yes, I'll have some sanity thank you (just scrapes by the mental health test.) Whew, that was close, I owe you one.  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: I try to update fast, but I guess this last one destroyed that happy illusion.. Size of review matters not, thank you for dropping one anyway! (Woohoo, I've inspired someone else to write an SD3 fic! That is truly the highest honour for a fanfic writer I believe. Good luck!)  
  
Wingnut: I am always amazed by your multitudes of talents.. (attempts to write way out of a turnip barrel.) Thanks for your review. (Smacks head. Oh well, I can grow to like turnips.)  
  
Ff.net surfer: Actually, Angela became Dark. And later on, Hawk will be half/half, so it kind of all balances. You actually asked your brother if I emailed him? (LOL). Well, maybe where you live the spiders can't kill you. My work here is done. Thanks for still reading!  
  
Red Mage: Another new reviewer confessing! Is this a fad that I missed out on? Sappy? Me, make anything sappy? I am no masochist! I dare imagine if Angela ever actually confesses, it'll be followed by several explosions. Large explosions. (Coz I so love explosions.) Okay, so I am a masochist. So sue me. Thanks for the review.  
  
Wings of Lead: Does anyone read the Author's Notes? Carlie and a pet rabite! That is genius! (Do I have permission to use that?) I have yet to give Duran a shield, I think I might upgrade everyone's weapons next chapter. Thanks a bunch for your review.  
  
Slash the Ironman: Whew, that's a relief, I just couldn't afford another lawsuit.. Thanks as always for the review!  
  
I think Response to Reviewers just went grossly out of control.. Oh well, hope you don't mind, it's a long chapter anyway I guess. thanks as always! Now we've had more than enough of my senseless prattling, read, read! (And don't flame.)  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 22 - This Is How You Storm A Fortress  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The first thing the three Mana heroes, with their newly acquired power, went and did was return to the Rolante underground resistance to get some much-needed sleep - climbing the Path to the Heavens then getting through the Corridor of the Wind and fighting off Tzenker.... it had taken a lot out of them, it really had. Not to mention the overload of the class change. Riesz was there to greet them, waiting anxiously, almost looking as though she had paced outside the entrance until they returned.  
  
Once she saw them, she pounced. "You're back! What did Don Perigon say?"  
  
"Hello to you too," Angela remarked dryly, noting that the Amazoness didn't bother brandishing her staff to hold back Hawk lest he decide to 'greet' her again. As the thief took a step forward, Angela dug her heel into his foot before he could take another. The thief winced briefly. "Behave yourself."  
  
"We've consulted with Don Perigon, and we have a foolproof plan for taking back Rolante!" Duran announced. "Get your troops ready! We'll take it back tomorrow!"  
  
Riesz clasped her hands in admiration, even as Hawk and Angela raised an eyebrow at Duran's sudden acquisition of authority. The Altenan Princess eyed the blonde warily. The damn Amazoness came from all angles! One minute she was risking a kiss from Hawk, the next minute she had stars in her eyes over Duran! Why didn't she make up her mind already?!  
  
'Sounds like someone I know', the Fairy commented.  
  
'NOW what are you doing in my head? There's no excuse for it this time ! No monsters, nothing!' Angela hissed back, refusing to dignify the Fairy's actual comment with a real response.  
  
'I wanted to see how the mind of a Delvar worked. I've never met one before,' the Fairy remarked.  
  
Deciding it simply wasn't worth the energy to argue, Angela returned her attention to the outward conversation in time to hear Riesz commenting thoughtfully, "You know, you all seem a little different than before... I can't quite put my finger on it....."  
  
"It was Don Perigon's great beverage," Hawk said solemnly. "It reinvigorated us like nothing else." The Amazoness looked momentarily confused; Angela barely hid a guffaw.  
  
"We class changed," Duran informed her. "We used the Wind Mana Stone to do it."  
  
"Class change, huh?" Riesz mused, letting her eyes drift over Hawk and Duran, blushing slightly. Angela stuck her nose in to the air, refusing to admit she cared. It wasn't like Riesz even had a chance against her feminine wiles anyway! "Interesting...."  
  
"Anyhow," Angela said, interrupting the other Princess before she could go any further. "We're pretty tired, you know, great pilgrimage to Don Perigon and all, we could use a rest."  
  
Obviously flustered, Riesz hurriedly replied, "Of course, right this way, we don't have much but we ought to have at least three spare beds."  
  
Exhausted, they followed Riesz and collapsed onto the cheap accommodations for a peaceful night's sleep....  
  
Only for Angela to wake up the next morning, confronted by a pair of giant blue eyes.  
  
"EEEEEEEK!"  
  
The young granddaughter of the High Priest of Wendel covered her ears. "Ouch! Slutty girl too loud!"  
  
Rolling out of bed and grabbing her cane, the Delvar started muttering a spell under her breath, but stopped when she realised that there was another pair of eyes watching her from behind.  
  
Whirling and lashing out with her cane on instinct, there was a frightened yelp as Kevin took the impact on his thick skull - Angela assumed it was thick, because he didn't even move or seem to care after he had taken the hit; a hit that could kill most zombies. "Gah! Why you hurt me?"  
  
Angela, though, was steaming. "Were you watching me the whole time while I was asleep?!"  
  
The werewolf - now in his human form - seemed to think about this at length. "Um..... only came in an hour ago to give you message."  
  
"AN HOUR?!!!"  
  
Carlie nodded cheerily on the other side of the bed. "Yep yep! When Beastie Man not come back, Scary Lady sent Carlie!"  
  
Riesz must hate her.  
  
The Beastman shrugged helplessly, shuffling as inconspicuously as possible out of the Princess's range. "Did not want to wake you up."  
  
Sighing, Angela said, "Well, then what is the message?"  
  
Scratching his head, Kevin only proceeded to look more lost. Great, she had stumbled upon someone with an attention span even shorter than Duran's. "Um, not sure."  
  
"Not sure?!!!!"  
  
"Kevin language not so good," the Beastman admitted.  
  
"Carlie know!"  
  
"C'mon, Kevin, try," Angela beseeched him, ignoring the jumping bundle of energy on the other side of the bed. Come to think of it, there was a striking resembelance between Carlie's and Kevin's speech patterns.  
  
"Carlie know! Carlie know!"  
  
The Beastman appeared deep in thought, but just shook his head, coming up with nothing. "Sorry."  
  
"Carlie know!"  
  
Finally, Angela gave in. "Carlie, what was Riesz's message?"  
  
Carlie stopped, stared at her, then pouted. "Carlie not telling coz Carlie no like Slutty Girl."  
  
Angela was considering whether to Holy Ball the Beastman or Carlie just to let off some steam, her patience just about vaporized, when Duran finally arrived, like the true saviour he was. How could ANYONE not love a guy that rescued them from Carlie? "Carlie! Kevin! What are you doing here? Riesz is waiting!"  
  
Duran called Riesz by name but insisted on calling HER Princess? What was wrong with that picture? SHE'D been the one travelling with him for weeks, not that blonde trollop! Pinching herself, Angela kept hoping that this entire morning was just a horrible, horrible dream. That being the case, now would be a good time to wake up.  
  
Carlie blinked and smiled, latching on to the Knight's arm. "Carlie come to wake up Slutty Girl! Scary Lady say it time to leave now!"  
  
Duran thought about this at length. "I guess this must mean the troops are ready. Well, Princess? Are you ready? Riesz wanted to know what was taking everyone so long."  
  
"Give me a minute," Angela grumbled, running a hand through her lavendar hair, for once not really caring how messed up it may be because chances were it would be a mess again by the end of the day anyway. Besides, beautiful hair such as hers, she figured, ought to always look good, no matter how windblown. She eyed Kevin, who was starting at her in awe again, out of the corner of her eye, opting to ignore him. "So where's our resident pick pocket?"  
  
Duran shrugged. "Hawk was up before I was. He could be anywhere."  
  
The Delvar paused at that. Hawk, get up earlier than Duran?  
  
She supposed they were about to go to war with his home nation, and probably a lot of his old colleagues would die today. She doubted she'd sleep that well under those circumstances either. He was awfully good at hiding his true feelings under that damned cheery exterior, but they'd been travelling with him long enough now to know the difference.  
  
In the midst of these thoughts, the blonde Amazoness strolled into the room, fully decked out in her battle armour and as usual armed with her ever-present lance. "Where is everyone?! Are you quite done yet? I keep sending people in here but no one comes back! We have a nation to take back today, Angela!"  
  
Angela groaned, stretching and flattening the creases in her red dress, thinking of how matter of fact Riesz seemed to take it - like they were going to retrieve a lost dog or something. Must be all that training on How to Act Calm While Leading an Army Into Suicide. "I'm coming already! Don't rush me, you can't start this without me anyway!"  
  
Riesz looked jealous at Angela's side comment about her access to Jinn's power - realistically, Jinn being Rolante's patron spirit and all - but shook it off professionally. Grabbing the Princess's arm and dragging her after her, she cheerfully announced, "Well, since we can't start without you let's get upstairs then! My troops are getting restless!"  
  
The Princess of Altena frowned to herself, not looking forward to the inevitable battle and not understaning why everyone else seemed to be, finally shaking off the Amazon's grip as they approached the field of flowers. Hawk was already waiting, along with a small group of soldiers. Angela raised an eyebrow at their numbers. "THIS is all you're re-taking Rolante with?"  
  
"Of course not, most of the troops are getting into position for the onslaught," Riesz replied, nodding to several of her guards who bowed reverently in reply. Talk about a loved ruler! Maybe she ought to have been taking notes on Riesz's work.  
  
"Morning, Angie, Riesz, you're both looking exceptionally beautiful today," Hawk called over, displaying none of the signs of hesitancy the Princesses expected. Riesz blushed a deep crimson - Angela, being far more used to compliments, simply glared at him in warning. Stupid ladies-men wanna-bes. She didn't care. She had no reason to care, all that mattered was that Hawk remained available long enough to stir the jealousy in Duran enough for him to take action and...... now really wasn't the time to be thinking about this.  
  
"Let's not waste any time then!" Angela announced, getting into position at the far end of the field. Even so, the less time around Riesz, Carlie and Kevin, the better.  
  
They all waited patiently, even the Fairy emerging to watch the spectacle.  
  
Angela hesitated.  
  
Finally, Hawk came over, whispered and pointed northward, "Rolante's in that direction."  
  
Nodding her thanks and trying her best not to turn crimson from embarrassment, the Princess called up Jinn's power. At her summons, Jinn appeared and did something of a dance over the field of flowers, pulling a cloud of pollen into the air. "Over to you, Princess!" With that, the bumbling Wind Elemental disappeared as quickly as he came, leaving Angela in control of blowing the pollen into Rolante castle in a powerful breeze.  
  
"Hold on to your hats!" Carlie took this literally, desperately holding on to her pink cap while the others crouched low to the ground to stop getting the nasty stuff in their eyes. The Fairy shrieked, surprised by the power of the gale Angela summoned, and disappeared into Duran's head once again - better neither seen nor heard, anyway.  
  
Once she was fairly certain the pollen was well-spread throughout the nearby castle, the magician lowered her staff and let the wind abate. Sighing, she turned around - to see Hawk with an odd look on his face.  
  
Glancing over and Riesz, she noticed the Amazoness was holding her skirt and blushing again. Kevin and even Duran both had similar looks to Hawk's on their faces. Realising then what exactly Hawk was looking at, Angela brought her cane around and thwacked him on the head. "PERVERT!"  
  
Just for fun, Carlie decided to imitate the Delvar. "PERVERT MAN!" Lucky for Hawk, he did manage to dodge the morningstar.  
  
"Hey, they looked too!" the Navarrian defended, indicating a bug-eyed Kevin and Duran. Rubbing his head, he muttered in the background something along the lines of class changing making her swing a lot harder.  
  
"That was a most impressive feat of magic, Angela. I must try this class changing thing myself," Riesz commented, in a feeble effort to stop what was potentially the eruption of the equivalent of a bar fight with magic and Carlie thrown in generously into the mix.  
  
"Ah, it was nothing," Angela dismissed, lowering her cane. She paused at that thought, though. It really hadn't taken as much effort as she thought. Could it be that since she class-changed, and with all the practice she'd been getting at controlling her magical power, that she might be able to even try some higher level spells? She'd never even thought much beyond the possibility of HAVING this magic, but to have even more powerful spells..... she was already stronger than the average Altenan soldier, but if she kept up this rate of improvement, maybe one day her spells could even rival that of Koren and her mother! She'd have to work on that later.  
  
Duran was ready for action. "Come on, surely they must have all succumbed by now! Let's go to Rolante!"  
  
No one seemed to have much reason to protest, and so they all demurely (or rather, seeing as most of their party with the exception of Hawk and Kevin were all female, most enthusiastically) trailed after the battle-eager Knight. The path to Rolante castle was empty but for a few sleeping needlebirds, which Angela kicked for good measure.  
  
Crossing the bridge over a crevasse on their way earned the party a breath- taking view - Rolante certainly had a scenic location, it felt like they could see the whole world! Angela mentally added it to her list of Romantic Destinations she was going to visit with Duran one day. Even that, though, didn't cease their half-run until they were at the gates of Rolante castle, where a small squadron of Amazonesses were already standing guard. They saluted at the sight of Riesz.  
  
"Princess Riesz! We've secured the outer permieters of the castle, but we believe some of the enemy may have escaped the pollen inside!"  
  
"We've encountered no losses thus far, but we can't breach their inner defenses," another guard confirmed upon arrival. Angela had to raise an eyebrow at their efficiency. These certainly were well-seasoned warriors - no wonder Rolante had been dubbed the Castle That Never Fell.  
  
Kevin, though, was less interested in the impromptu strategy session taking place, instead basking in the glow of the majestic castle. "Kevin made it to Wendel at last!"  
  
Angela stopped in puzzlement. "But this is Rolante."  
  
The Beastman scratched his head in puzzlement. "Wendel and Rolante not the same?"  
  
Carlie swung her morningstar at the Beastman, who dodged it with a frightened yelp. "Beastie Man no compare Rolante to Wendel! Carlie's home Wendel much prettier than this!"  
  
Hawk sidled up to Angela in the meantime while Duran and Riesz discussed the tactics of taking down any remaining conscious opposition. "Angie, I'm going in ahead of Rolante's lot, tell the others for me."  
  
The Princess stared at him in confusion, trying to comprehend whether or not the thief might just be insane. Being a Ranger must have gone to his head! "Why? It'd be safer to just wait for Riesz's troops to take it for us."  
  
The thief shook his head. "A spearhead attack would be better than an army brawl. Besides, I have to get to Isabella first. If they kill her, then Jessica....."  
  
Thinking this over, Angela finally announced, "I'm coming with you!"  
  
"What?" Hawk obviously hadn't been expecting that answer.  
  
"Carlie come too!" the pink-clad girl announced, somehow having overheard their coversation.  
  
Kevin thumped his chest in an effort not to be left out. "Gah, if Angela go, Kevin go."  
  
"What's this about?" Duran asked, detaching himself from the conversation with Riesz and company.  
  
Hawk had a hand to his head in a gesture of exasperation as his plan was falling to pieces. Obviously giving up, he announced, "See ya," and took off running in the direction of the the castle entrance.  
  
"Hey! Hey wait!" Angela yelled after him, following.  
  
Duran shrugged, and with an apologetic bow to a surprised Riesz, ran to catch up with his two reckless companions. Angela felt a small surge of joy as she realised the handsome Knight was following her instead of staying with Riesz; any victory was welcome. In the background, she could hear Riesz giving her troops orders and then making way to follow... probably bringing Carlie and Kevin along for the ride, but they had some temporary distance.  
  
Once Duran and Angela finally caught up to Hawk, who had slowed enough for them to catch up - damn he could run fast! - the Princss demanded, "What was that about?"  
  
"They were destroying the purpose of my plan!" Hawk protested, then added, "Are you sure you want to come? Like you said, Angie, it'd be safer to wait for Riesz's troops to clear out the area. I just couldn't forgive myself if you got hurt."  
  
"Save the sarcasm for later," Angela hurriedly interrupted before she could start to analyse what that strange warm feeling meant. "Class-changed, the three of us probably have a better chance at getting in at Isabella than Riesz and her cohorts. Now let's not waste time or they'll catch up and ruin everything!" Besides, it simply wouldn't do to have Duran trying to protect Riesz in battle.  
  
Nodding, Hawk soundlessly armed himself with his kodachis.... from somwhere, the moment never lost of the other two members. Meanwhile, the Fairy was grumbling at their crazy risk taking. "Think that just because you saved Forcena you're invincible and can just waltz into any Kingdom under siege...."  
  
"Shut up and go back into Duran's head where you belong," Angela snapped.  
  
"Hmph. Just remember that if you get yourselves killed it's going to be YOUR fault that the world ends," the small deity announced before vanishing once again.  
  
"Yeah, we're so actively destroying it by returning a kingdom to its proper owners," Angela retorted sarcastically.  
  
Running stealthily through the halls, it appeared as though Hawk seemed to instinctively know the layout, navigating with confidence even as they passed several battling Amazonesses, ninja, and other Navarrians unconscious and sleeping from the effects of the sweet pollen.  
  
"Hey Hawk," Angela asked as they ran deeper into the bowels of the castle, still encountering no opposition themslves, "How do you know where we're going?"  
  
"Easy," he called back, checking around the corner before they continued down the next corridor, approaching a flight of stairs. "Did you know that most castles have the same basic layout? I'm guessing that Isabella's at the top in the ceremonial throne room."  
  
"More skills taught at the thieve's guild, I assume," she commented, her magical senses tickling briefly. What did that mean?  
  
"Well, who's complai-" Their conversation was cut abruptly short as they emerged on to the second story, where they encountered their first ninja - Angela never even had the chance to see him. Lucky for them, Hawk had - he ran him through this his kodachis before she had the chance to blink.  
  
"There'll be others," Hawk said quietly, pushing the body to the side, looking vaguely surprised at his own increase in speed. "Stay alert."  
  
"You don't need to tell us that twice," Angela muttered - she'd been alert the entire time. Duran looked concerned, but had his sword readied, eyes tracking the corridor.  
  
There was another set of stairs at the end of the corridor, their new destination. Halfway along, Hawk stopped.  
  
"What is it?" Duran asked, eyes dancing around, poised to fight.  
  
"More ninja. Four of them," Hawk murmured, amber eyes flicking to the shadows.  
  
Angela instictively moved closer to Hawk, holding her cane up as though it were a shield. "Where?"  
  
"The Fairy can't sense anything," Duran reported, still not relaxing.  
  
"They're under Isabella's spell, I doubt she could - and they're masters at hiding. Okay, come on out!"  
  
There was a brief silence, as though to prove Hawk wrong and simply paranoid. Just as Angela was about to make a witty comment that would surely confirm her mental superiority, though, four ninjas came racing towards them simultaneously in a blur. The Princess shrieked in surprise, her heightened reflexes all that protected her from the katana slicing decisively for her heart. Reacting instictively, she lashed out with her foot towards her opponent's stomach, catching the masked attacker by surprise and flinging him back several metres. Before the ninja could strike again, thinking she might not be so fast the second time, Angela shrieked out, "HOLY BALL!"  
  
The ninja made no sound as he was blasted back by the balls of light magic. Angela stared, surprised at the sudden power boost her simple spell had acquired - she was fairly certain she had just killed her opponent, when all she'd really been trying was to stun him.  
  
Hawk was busy engaged with two of the other ninjas, Duran barely dodging a hail of blows from his opponent before slashing through the ninja's shoulder. Moments later, Hawk whirled and cut down both of his foes in a flurry of movement. A brief silence fell, declaring the end of the sortie, punctuated only by harsh breathing as the adrenaline rush faded.  
  
"Wow," was all that Angela had to say. "How did we just do that?"  
  
The Fairy tentatively emerged from Duran's head again. "Again, it's your class changes. You're a lot stronger, faster and more skillful than you were before. Ninja that you previously would have struggled to deal with aren't even close to your level anymore."  
  
"That's great," Angela commented, though her heart wasn't in it as she noticed Hawk go and check under the masks of each of the ninja, obviously searching for people he recognised. When he stood, his face was again carefully schooled into a neutral yet determined expression.  
  
"We should hurry - the longer we take the more prepared the enemy will be for our arrival. Fairy, keep us up to date on all these class-changing things - we haven't had a chance to figure out half of it yet," Duran ordered, the Fairy nodding her agreement and moving back into safety once again.  
  
Despite encountering several other ninja, whom they disposed of quickly, from them on the three warriors barely bothered to stop. They didn't pause again until after they mounted the next flight of stairs, leading to an outdoor corridor then entering the castle again.  
  
When the group burst through the doors, though, their shock was easily sufficient to halt them in their tracks.  
  
"Navarre uses trained monsters?" Duran asked, visibly horrified.  
  
The hallway between them and their next exit, that hopefully led to the next level of the tall palace where Isabella was supposedly situated, was littered with various demonic type monsters, from enchanted floating swords to ninja zombies. It was a virtual zoo of dangerous creatures that had to have been brought in from the underworld itself - none of these creations could possibly have existed naturally, no matter how twisted or warped Mana was becoming.  
  
"Not Navarre," Hawk said, shaking his head as though he were in denial. "Never would Navarre..... this must be Isabella's doing."  
  
Angela began to feel her first pangs of apprehension she had felt since they had recklessly crashed along into this mission. Isabella had command of monsters from the underworld? What kind of woman WAS she?  
  
The Delvar wasn't sure she wanted to know. "There's no choice but to get through them, as fast as possible. Think we can handle it?"  
  
Duran held up his sword; "As a fully-fledged Knight of Forcena, of course!"  
  
Hawk managed a wan smile, brandishing his two kodachi similarly. "Piece of cake, Angie."  
  
Grinning, the Delvar flicked back her lavendar hair in an effort to exude a confidence she didn't truly feel and suggested, "Let's start by making a path then, shall we? AIR BLAST!"  
  
Caught by surprise the various monstrosities were blown to the sides by the powerful wind magic blasts that ripped though the corridor as though it were the breath of heaven itself, opening a sort of path towards the exit. "Right, don't waste time, go go go!" Angela ordered.  
  
Hacking down any opposition in his path as the assortment of creatures tried gather themselves again for attack, Duran led the way. Angela took up the center position, periodically leeting loose strategic Holy Ball and Air Blast attacks, and hitting with her cane any enemy that ventured too near. Hawk's twin blades protected them from the rear as they hurried through the mob of summoned monsters, heading for the not-so-proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, and decimating their foe along the way.  
  
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the Mana heroes broke free of the crowded inside confines of the palace and escaped into an outside pathway, Hawk shutting the doors and barricading them with nearby debris as soon as they were clear. "That ought to hold them...." The door shuddered from an impact. "....For a while."  
  
Duran ran a hand through his reddish hair tiredly. "There's a gauntlet I don't want to try and run again for a while." The Knight took out a cloth and made an effort to wipe his blade as clean as possible from the blood - why he even bothered Angela didn't know, she sincerely doubted the danger was gone yet.  
  
"I agree, so let's not hang around so that all those... things.... can come bother us again!" The Princess of Altena ordered. She turned and began to walk along the slightly frightening outdoor corridor - why didn't Rolante ever feel the need for guardrails? A particularly strong gust of wind and splat..... what kind of royal took that kind of risk? As though the mere thought had been enough of a summons, halfway there she noticed their way was blocked.... by a blonde girl with a lance?  
  
"Riesz?" Angela asked incredulously.  
  
The Amazon Princess waved happily - moment laters, Carlie and Kevin appeared as well, all of them apprently in fine shape, and even good humour - as good as humour as anyone could be in the middle of a war, anyhow.  
  
The Delvar gaped like a goldfish. Hawk elbowed her, saying, "Angie, you'll catch a fly."  
  
"What-? How-? HOW THEY HECK DID YOU GET UP HERE BEFORE US?" Angela demanded.  
  
Riesz twirled a long piece of blonde hair around one finger - was she trying to flirt with Hawk again? "Why, I used one of the secret passageways that lead straight up into the higher regions of the palace. It's much quicker and you avoid running into any nasty company. How do you think I escaped when Rolante was first under attack?"  
  
Angela turned and glared at Hawk, who held up his hands in defense. "What? How was I supposed to know about secret passageways? I've never even BEEN to Rolante before!"  
  
"Oooh, so pretty," Carlie cooed, standing and leaning precariously on the edge of the precipice, no one bothering to move her back into comparative safety.  
  
Riesz raised an eyebrow. "That's what you get for running off ahead. You aren't going to take this damn Isabella character out without me!"  
  
Hawk visibly fidgeted. "Well, you see, about Isabella....."  
  
Duran finally decided it was his duty to yank Carlie back before she fell off the pathway altogether. Carlie promptly latched on to his leg and started crying about how much she missed Heath.  
  
"What about it?" Riesz challenged, holding her lance in a position that was a little too battle-ready for Angela's liking. Of course, the Amazoness did have some pretty good reasons to hate the woman, no wonder Hawk was apprehensive.  
  
"I ran ahead, because I was worried you'd kill her," the thief confessed. "You see, this girl I know, Jessica, had a curse put on her to ensure that I wouldn't kill Isabella. If Isabella dies, so does Jessica."  
  
Riesz's face immediately reflected horror. "That's terrible!"  
  
Hawk nodded grimly, a dark look on his face as if even contemplating the woman was enough to call up thoughts of hell itself. "It's bad enough what she did to everyone in Navarre, but if Jessica dies too......"  
  
"And this Jessica.... she's your....," Riesz muttered, drawing a conclusion, looking particularly crestfallen, Angela noticed. She knew it! She just KNEW that Riesz had a crush on Hawk!  
  
Wait a minute, though. Was it true? Angela blinked to herself, thinking over the other Princess's words. Hawk never HAD explained exactly what his relationship with this Jessica character was, just that she was his best friend's younger sister. How MUCH younger?  
  
A sudden crash coming from the nearby barricaded door jerked their attention back to the current situation. Looking surprised, Riesz asked, "What's that?"  
  
"Navarre had a bunch of trained monsters guarding the way here," Duran explained. "It would have taken too long to take them all down, so we kind of...."  
  
The blonde seemed to be taking all of these surprises very well, considering - she truly was a credit to her army and kingdom. "Navarre uses monsters? And you fought your way through them AND the ninja and still got here this quickly?..... I'm impressed."  
  
"Gah, how you do it?" Kevin asked, keeping a keen eye on the shuddering door.  
  
"Magic!" Hawk announced. At the sour looks he received, he amended, "Well, it's partially true, Angie uses magic....."  
  
"I don't think we should stand here and argue the point. We're going to have a lot of company if we don't hurry up," Duran urged them.  
  
Riesz seemed to think this new development over for a minute. "But if they break through while we're confronting Isabella - and I doubt she'll be alone up here - we'll be surrounded and caught in a pincer trap. It'd be better if some of us stayed to hold them off - it'll be easier to handle a crowd of monsters on this narrow walkway than it would in a throne room where they could overwhelm us."  
  
"This kind of thinking must be why you're such a revered leader of the army, Riesz," Hawk complimented her, the soldier blushing furiously at the comment. Really, Angela scoffed to herself, the Amazoness ought to get her facial blood flow under control, all Hawk had to do was LOOK in her direction and she was off like a tomato in an oven.  
  
"Who should go? Hawk's a given," Duran asked.  
  
There was no argument for Angela. "Riesz, Carlie and Kevin ought to stay here."  
  
"Why?" Riesz demanded, obviously anxious to get in on the action herself. "It IS my kingdom!"  
  
Tapping her foot impatiently, as the sound of splintering wood could begin to be heard behind them, Angela explained simply, "It's easy - because you haven't class-changed. Do you think you're fast enough to go up against a high-end group of ninja on your own? And besides, this Isabella could pack some serious punch, it would make more sense this way. Okay? Okay. Let's get going!" she ordered, motioning for Hawk and Duran to follow before the other could launch a counter argument.  
  
"One last thing," Hawk called after her, approaching Riesz. Sweeping her up again, he gave her another passionate kiss. All the girls went bug-eyed and Kevin growled - Duran had the presence of mind to cover Carlie's vision, to which the little Priestess-to-be objected vehemently. "For luck!" He ran after them before Riesz could try and beat him to a bloody pulp for 'inappropriate actions in the midst of war' - even though everyone KNEW he enjoyed it - and Carlie could chuck a tantrum at missing 'Pervert Man in Action'.  
  
"Really, Hawk, was that necessary? She'll be too distracted to fight now!" Angela hissed, not really knowing why she cared.  
  
"Jealous, Angie?"  
  
"ME? JEALOUS? Why, I'll show you jealous! DIAMOND-"  
  
Duran coughed. "The Fairy suggests that maybe you should be saving your magical strength for Isabella, Princess."  
  
"Tell the Fairy to mind her own damn business!"  
  
The Knight appeared to be deep in thought for a moment after this, then said out loud, "Fairy, I'm not going to tell the Princess that, that's disrespectful!"  
  
"Alright, you little insect, get out here and talk to me yourself!"  
  
It was Hawk's turn to cough, pushing open the door to the antechamber preceding the tower throne room. "We'll settle all this later, yes?"  
  
"Fine, but don't think I'm forgetting this... either of you! Hey, these are some creepy decorations, doesn't seem like Riesz's taste," the Delvar commented, swiftly becoming distracted by the antechamber's decorations. The door, fringed by a dramatic what-looked-like green plaster moulding in the form of a hideous dragon's mouth, was truly a sight to make the eyes bleed.  
  
"Perhaps King Joster had a liking for it? A family heriloom maybe?" Duran suggested.  
  
Approaching it cautiously, Angela felt her recently acquired magical insticts screaming out at her. Even so, convinced that she was merely being spooked over nothing, the Princess made to gingerly step through the archway into the room beyond.  
  
"Angela, no!" The Fairy shrieked out in warning all of a sudden. Surprised that the insect would come out in a danger zone, Angela jerked back - just as a wall of fire lit up in front of her and the eyes of the 'doorway' came to life.  
  
"That thing is alive!" Duran said incredulously, holding up his sword into a defensive position again. "What kind of devilry is this?"  
  
"More of Isabella's sorcery!" Hawk confirmed, shifting into a ready battle stance.  
  
"Fairy! How can we destroy it?" Duran asked out loud, obviously forgetting that the Fairy could pretty much read their thoughts as it was.  
  
"How am I supposed to know? Why doesn't Angela use some of her magic and do something helpful for once!"  
  
The Delvar scowled. "I'm far more useful than you, insect!"  
  
The Fairy took her cue to seek sactuary, though, as once again their conversation was pre-empted by some shadowy forms emerging from the fire..... they looked like blobs of sort, some resembeling the other creatures they'd fought in corridors, even a cute gooey rabite in there somewhere, but more important.... where had they come from?  
  
"It must be part of the magic," Hawk surmised, even as his kodachis flashed in a whirdlwind of fluid movement, keeping the attackers back. "Don't forget that the archway is the true target! Angie!"  
  
"Way ahead of you!" she called back, holding out her staff. Before she could do anything, she needed some space. "AIR BLAST!"  
  
The small crowd of creepy creatures were blown away, but merely recomposited themselves and began crawling after her again. "This sucks!" Angela groaned, whirling and calling upon Wisp's magic again. "HOLY BALL!" The door shuddered from the impact of the spell, the eyes lighting up and the fire momentarily wavering in colour.  
  
Duran and Hawk were busy keeping all of the gooey monsters away from the Princess so she could work her magic. "Again!" Duran called, slashing a slimy enchanted sword, then whirling to lock blades with a faceless knight. In the meantime, Hawk was grappling with what vaguely looked like a golem, apparently having some difficultly.  
  
"HOLY BALL!" Angela cast again, pouring more strength into the spell. This time, cracks appeared in the plaster and the fire began flickering in colour most erratically. Once more ought to do it - now, though, the doorway's minions were attacking in a frenzy, as though it could sense its imminent doom. Duran was whirling about and slashing with his blade, managing to hold his ground, but Hawk was being mobbed, and about to be overwhelmed.  
  
The Delvar fervently prepared a final Holy Ball - she was starting to get tired, that was a lot of spell-casting for one day - when Hawk, cornered and outnumbered suddenly let loose with a stream of throwing daggers, nailing all of his opponents. At the same instant, the Princess of Altena completed her spell. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
Spheres of powerful light magic mercilessly pummeled the door frame. With a creak and eerie moan, the plaster at last shattered and exploded. The three heroes were thrown back by the blast, covering their faces to avoid being blinded by the pieces of flying scrapnel. The heat washed over them, then was gone, replaced only by the soothing coolness of a faint breeze from outside.  
  
Standing shakily, Angela checked to make sure that she was all in one piece - she might've been sooty, but she was all there. Duran and Hawk pulled themselves up from the ground a moment later. "That was closer than I would have liked," she commented.  
  
Nodding his agreement, Duran asked, "Hawk, what was that move you pulled back there? I hadn't seen you use that before."  
  
The Ranger smiled in self-satisfaction. "I just made it up then. Think I might call it 'Flying Swallow Toss', what do you think?" His grin abated. "Actually, it was an attack I'd been working on for years, but I'd never actually managed to pull it off without cutting myself to shreds. This another one of those class-changing things, Fairy?"  
  
"She says yes," Duran reported, the tiny deity obviously too spooked by the risk of getting killed by unseen monsters to dare emerge from the safety of her host's head. The Knight regarded his sword thoughtfully. "I think this class-change is something I can get used to."  
  
"We shouldn't dally around," Angela said, as thrilling as the concept of even more power advantages a class change might provide was. "Isabella is right through there, Hawk. Want to lead the way?"  
  
Nodding grimly, cheery exterior abandoned once again, the exiled thief wiped his blades clean and sheathed them temporarily, stepping cautiously towards the remains of the doorway - which was now more reminiscent of Angela's custom holes in the wall. "We certainly do our fair share of collateral damage."  
  
"I hope Riesz doesn't bill us for it," Duran agreed worriedly, obviously remembering their ongoing crisis for money.  
  
"I can't believe you people, I chose you three to be the Heroes of Mana?" the Fairy's voice muttered faintly from somewhere.  
  
"Here we come, Isabella," Hawk murmured, a clenching and unclenching of his fists the only visible sign of his anxiety.  
  
It appeared it was to be time for another Dramatic Entrance. It was what they were best at, after all.  
  
_____________________  
  
I need your reviews. I have no food, so I need your reviews instead to fuel me! Fuel! (And coffee!) Coffee, anyone? BTW, if it's 4am, I'm instructed to warn people away from the review button until a more respectable hour of day. 


	23. TryHard Villains Flee For Your Lives!

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. May be hazardous to your sanity (and your funnybone). In fact, hit your funnybone. It's funnier than this. (Funny is in the eye of the beholder.)  
  
Author's note: I have recently discovered that nobody actually READS these author's notes! This is an amazing revelation! This means I can write whatever I want in here and it won't matter! (Insert evil laugh in your choice of spelling here). The power! I suddenly feel omnipotent. And flipper FLIES through the water! Whee!  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
Staci/Nadia: Wow, thanks for your long review! (Eyes roll into back of the head). Glad you liked those bits, at least I managed to make SOME funnies in the Disaster That Was Last Chapter. I tried to get this chapter out a little earlier, and a little longer to compensate for the horrendous wait last time (bah, who needs an education! I'll become.. a... a hunter- gatherer! Yeah!) Thanks as always for your stupendous review.  
  
Cutsy: Woohoo, another new reviewer! (I had no idea this many people still frequented the SD3 fandom..) Again, I'm sorry about the final votes, but heck, the characters are halfway there already so too late to be changing now. I'm still deciding whether or not the great Richard/Valda Jerry Springer-style scandal will be brought to light. I'll probably do it, because I so love controversy (And explosions. Gotta have lots of explosions). Thanks a bunch for your review!  
  
Tymora: Well, aren't you lucky because Riesz vanishes for a while after this chapter. Oh look, someone else who doesn't read the Author's Notes! Yes, it will be Angela and Hawk one day (it's in the story summary for godsakes people!). But I'll pretend that I made it that way just for you so that you do have some influence. Thanks for your review!  
  
Doc Dragon: Yes. Yes it would. You are a genius.  
  
Wingnut: I guess that explains those big Tyrannosaurus footprints outside my house that have the neighbourhood freaking out. I forgot to tell my landlord about that. Great, thanks guys, now I'm going to be hungry AND homeless. GASP! You mean you've put up a new story?! (Must summon energy to reach review button.. Excuse me while I take a nap.)  
  
Ff.net surfer: Thank you. Thought you might like that.  
  
O_o: Are you any relation to ^_^? Thanks for your review.  
  
Oxi-Nu: My God, another confessor! My, what high praise, this unworthy one is humbled. Don't worry, I won't starve, only five more days until I go visit my family in the country so that they can feed me. Wow, I don't know where you live, but two cheeseburgers for a dollar? I could live for weeks! (LOL). I must admit, it's the first time anyone has offered to marry me at FF.net. (ROTFLOL) Thanks a bunch for your review, made me laugh.  
  
^_^: You're quite all right - actually, now that I think about it, '^_^' just kind of rolls off the tongue, you know? I could say that all day. "^_^, ^_^, ^_^". I agree, last chapter was pathetic, crossing fingers this chapter is better. Woo, sorry about the identity confusion, I've been doing that to everyone lately (sorry Kurai, Wingnut, my car, my lecturer, the neighbour's cat..) .. An apple! Why thank you! And thank you for the musing, I'm drowing in ideas thanks to you guys. (An apple.. You are too kind..)  
  
Bishiehuggler: New reviewer alert! (Bweep bweep bweep). Thanks.  
  
Wings of Lead: Why thank you! (Strokes chin thoughtfully.) Very good foresight on Hawk's intentions and everything, and I bet you could write fanfiction well, try it! We must FLOOD the SD3 section! Flood it, I say! Heh heh, good musing, thanks again.  
  
Solarious: Better watch out Solarious, a lot of people are trying to steal your job (and they give me apples, too. Then again.. A fortune..) But. I like Hawk too. Union of muses, huh? Well. um.. I am in a union of PENGUINS! And coffee. Yup. Running scared yet? Thanks as always for your great ideas and review!  
  
WaterDragonerS: Well, Angela didn't have any water spells yet, and they were busy occupied with. other things at the Black Market if you remember. Thanks for your contribution, hope you keep reading.  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: Thank you for your enthusiasm in pressing the review button so many times! Another juicily long chapter here for you. wow, I hope I don't set myself too high a standard. Well, I try to avoid writing two fics at the same time myself, hence why it's going to be a while until my others come out. I'd hold polls for the last class changes, but the rigging wars would be beyond my poor little brain's capacity to comprehend, plus I'm still trying to recover from the mental strain of counting up the votes from last time.  
  
Elalipa: You know you've read too much 'Another Witchmaker' when.. I will always eventually update, just now and again I get snowed under with other stuff and this has to take a back seat (safer in the back seat of the car anyway). Wow, you get up at 4am? I just wouldn't bother going to bed. Thanks for your high praise and review! Hope you keep reading.  
  
Slash the Ironman: Thanks! Again! Glad you're still reading.  
  
Truewind: Three boss fights in one chapter is a bit mean I think. How did you do it? Hope you like this chapter (I've almost. almost caught up! Must. type faster.)  
  
Cookie Pixie: I will explain the Fairy's line in the next chapter - yes, I put something in for a reason! Will the wonders never cease? I'm always happy to read your review, and as for Hawk's name for his attack. well, maybe they're 'Swallow' daggers - I actually think these types of daggers exist, something to do with the curvature of the blade. Or maybe I just need coffee. Coffee, anyone?  
  
Wow, Response to the Reviewers never ceases to amaze me. It's nearly as much fun to write as the fic! (Though you're probably all sick of reading it.) Enough of the strategic warble from me (Cat food). Hope you like this chapter!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 23 - Try-Hard Villains Flee For Your Lives!  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The three Mana heroes, along with their cowering deity, burst into the ceremonial throne room of Rolante through the shattered remains of the archway. "Alright, Isabella, the show ends here!" Hawk called out. He stopped, short, though, falling eerily silent.  
  
Angela, moving forward to get a view of what had the Ranger halted, noticed two ninja dressed slightly differently to the others - the two themselves looked identical to her, perhaps they were twins. Duran, seeing that it appeared they might have one more adversary before they got to the witch herself, readied his sword and, in the absence of Hawk doing so, ordered in a cold voice, "Step aside or we'll go through you."  
  
Feeling as though she ought to be supporting that statement, Angela put herself into what she hoped was a threatening battle-ready position, though in the back of her mind she was wondering why they bothered, since they had never yet actually encountered an obstacle that stood aside when asked. Perhaps if they asked politely, maybe they might get better results. Too late to be stepping back on this one now, though, she supposed. What was Hawk doing, but? He was just standing there staring.  
  
The light began to dawn on her, though, when Hawk croaked out, obviously having difficulty controlling his voice, "Bill? Ben? You too?" Friends?  
  
The pair of ninja shifted and stood in front of them. "Look, Bill, it's the traitor. Why do you think he's here?"  
  
"It's doesn't matter," the one that Angela logically assumed as Bill replied. "They can't be allowed to proceed any further. And Bigieu has ordered this one's extermination," Bill said, pointing a finger at Hawk. Still, the Ranger did nothing.  
  
"Hawk?" Duran asked worriedly.  
  
"Since you came this far, you must be tougher than you look, though. So we'll show you our very own special magic trick!" Ben announced, moving into an offensive position.  
  
"You'll be sorry you were ever born, Hawk, by the time we're through with you," Bill promised, moving into position himself. "Ready Ben?"  
  
"Ready Bill."  
  
"Let's go! FUSION!" They chanted in unison. The image of the two of them blurred, as though they were moving too fast for the human eye to track. Angela and Duran tensed, barely prepared for a flash of light that nearly blinded them, which faded to reveal, in the place of two stocky ninja, one monstrous one.  
  
"What the-? How is that possible?" Angela stuttered, not quite believing what she thought she just saw. The two ninja had become one?  
  
"The Fairy said it's an old forbidden form of sorcery from Navarre!" Duran reported grimly. Oh goody, Navarre knew about sorcery? She had been hoping that maybe Isabella was just a foreigner or a one-off. A bunch of thieves running around with magic was a really bad image.  
  
"That's really informative and all, but how do we fight it?!"  
  
Long silence. "The Fairy doesn't know. Just said good luck and she has great faith in us."  
  
That certainly wasn't uplifting. It sounded like the Fairy was lying through her teeth and ready to flee at the first available moment.  
  
"Um.... um.... well...," Angela stuttered, at loss for ideas and words. "What are you waiting for then, Duran? Do your sword thing!" When all else failed, attack.  
  
Duran shrugged, raising his sword for battle. He rushed the ninja, slashing downward decisively, but Bill and Ben were too fast, side-stepping the normally fatal swing as though the Knight wasn't even trying.  
  
"Too slow!" The ninja taunted, letting loose with a stream of throwing stars. Duran managed to deflect one with his sword, dodge another but the third stuck in his sword arm.  
  
"Duran!" Angela shrieked, for a moment forgetting about her own well-being as she saw her beloved actually injured! Duran winced, but was surrounded by a faint glow a moment later. The blood ceased to flow, and Duran held his sword high again. Angela blinked, back-tracking again out of the ninja's range. She didn't know Duran could use healing magic!  
  
Naturally, Bill and Ben weren't wasting time being as impressed as Angela was. Hawk was still standing there, almost oblivious to the battle around them. Seeing a vulnerable foe, the combined ninja pulled a curved blade and made for the Ranger.  
  
The thief snapped out of his stupor just in time to stop himself being skewered, his shirt almost getting caught by the blade. His own pair of blades whisked out nowhere, and with a flurry of attacks temporarily waylaid their foe.  
  
The large ninja stepped backwards. "Seems he's become a lot faster. But you can't dodge forever!"  
  
Angela cursed under her breath as the large ninja attacked Hawk again, the Ranger barely having the strength to ward off their massive blows. He was starting to look desperate.  
  
Duran ran into the battle, taking another swipe with his sword and not doing much more than grazing Bill and Ben's shoulder, before being forced to backtrack from the deadly flurry of attack and rain of shruiken again. The Princess's mind was racing - she was the magician here, it was going to be up to her to break this spell before they could defeat them! What could do it? An overcharge of magical energy maybe? If only she'd paid more attention in Jose's lessons and less days skipping at the Inn!  
  
As he was being backed up against a wall, Hawk came out with a another surprise for that day though - he produced several arrows from his invisible arsenal and flung them at their opponent. Bill and Ben cursed, dodging several, but two or three stuck into their legs and shoulders. Duran and Angela both winced in sympathetic pain, though now would be a really bad time to be developing pity for the enemy, as apparently these arrows weren't too much of a hindrance, and the ninja was now bearing down on the violet-haired girl, obviously deciding she was an easier target.  
  
Defence! She needed an attack, NOW!  
  
Panicking and holding out her staff, practically willing the spell to break, Angela was shocked to feel a flow of magical energy run through her fingertips and into her staff, causing it to glow. Amidst Hawk and Duran's surprised shouts, her cane shatterd just as a beam of bright magical energy ripped from it and hit Bill and Ben.  
  
Hollding nothing but a couple of the shards remaining of her cherished weapon, 'ShitShitShit' was about the capabilities of her mind right then. It was not her day, no it wasn't. She was going to die before she could even steal a kiss from her beloved Duran! And before she could kill Koren, and strangle Carlie, and plug the Fairy into a lamp! So much revenge to take and it was all going to be pre-empted!  
  
"Angie!" Hawk called out, appearing at her side like lightning. "Are you okay?"  
  
She nodded numbly, wondering why exactly the killing blow hadn't come yet. Did she die already and go to heaven? If that were true, what was Hawk doing there? Maybe she was in hell.  
  
"Princess? You're not hurt are you?" Duran echoed worriedly. Duran! Worried about her? Okay, not dead, or at least not in hell.  
  
"Angela, you broke the spell!" the Fairy congratulated, only half-emerging as Bill and Ben blurred, diffusing back into two separate entities, somehow avoiding their injuries through the transition process. They looked really angry now, though. With an 'eep' the tiny deity quickly shifted back into sactuary once again, obviously forgetting that there was still danger about.  
  
"They broke our spell, Ben."  
  
"That they did, Bill. But we must protect Bigieu! I'm really annoyed now! You're going to die, Hawk!"  
  
Who WAS this Bigieu they kept talking about? If they had ANOTHER foe before they reached Isabella.....  
  
Closing his eyes briefly, Hawk moved back into battle position somewhat tiredly, face taut to betray no emotion. Following suite, his two companions readied themselves as well, though Angela was feeling a bit naked without her favourite ladies'-man-wanna-be-baton.  
  
The two ninja moved in tandem, leaping towards them. Logically, two weak ninja still ought to be easier to battle than one powerful one, but then again, two ninja could come from more directions. Their speed was incredible! Hawk seemed to be the only one moving fast enough to deflect all their attacks - Angela felt herself get grazed by the blade plenty of times, only fast enough to avoid any serious wounds. She needed her staff, badly! Why couldn't Hawk carry one around spare with his small arsenal of weapons?  
  
Wait, she still had magic! "Hawk, cover me!"  
  
Not even bothering to respond, the Ranger whirled and let loose with a stream of flying daggers at their opponents. Whilst Bill and Ben were held at bay, frantically trying to avoid the thief's onslaught, Angela concentrated on calling up Gnome's magic.  
  
"DIAMOND MISSILES!"  
  
Three giant spars of diamond came crashing through the ceiling. Ben was the first go down - though he avoided being directly impaled on any of the projectiles, a piece of ceiling fell and smashed him on the head, knocking him out cold. Angela had somehow missed Bill altogether however, cursing as the agile Navarrian rushed Duran. Hawk was moving to intercept, but apparently, wasn't needed. As Bill came into range, Duran thrust with his sword, side-stepped and smashed the ninja on the back of the head in a three-strike combo. Bill collapsed on the ground in a similarly bruised and bloody unconscious heap.  
  
Letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, Angela tried to relax and gather up her strength again. She wasn't even sure if she had the strength left to fight this Isabella - they'd come all the way through the Rolante castle with Navarre's defenses, not to mention creepy doorways and combining ninja!  
  
She started to feel slightly better, though, realising belatedly that she was being bathed in a soft blue light, matching the glow surrounding Duran's hand. Her scratches and bruises she'd accummulated through the battle seemed to melt away with Wisp's soft touch. "Healing magic?"  
  
Duran nodded. "I discovered it by accident. I was going to ask Wisp directly to heal my arm, but this was much quicker and more controlled."  
  
"Besides," the Fairy said, seeming to decide that it was safe outside after all, "Elementals don't like to expose themselves unnecessarily to danger."  
  
With a scowl, Angela muttered, "Reminds me of some Fairies I know."  
  
The reddening Fairy never had a chance to make her retort as clapping echoed throughout the half-destroyed throne room. "I am amazed you made it this far! It appears I underestimated you! But know this - the children of the shadows will rule all!"  
  
"Isabella," Hawk muttered like a curse, moving so fast Angela didn't even see him leave his current position and arrive at the woman's side, blade pressing against her neck. "I should kill you where you stand for what you've done to Navarre."  
  
"Ah ah ah," she tutted, waving a finger. "Remember someone? A certain blue-haired young lady?"  
  
Teeth clenching, Hawk withdrew. Slightly.  
  
Duran and Angela stood by worriedly, wondering whether or not their usually cheerful thief would be able to keep control of himself. Even Duran was beginning to look enraged enough at the woman to lop off her head himself. Come to think of it, it was the Princess's first good look at the infamous Isabella, and what greeted her was a surprise. For one, she had pink hair, and dressed in an exotic garb that was nearly skimpy enough to make even Angela consider whether or not it was bordering on being too revealing. Yet her entire demeanour spoke of something else that completely contrasted with her looks. She was a confusing woman - no wonder Navarre had been tricked so. After all, someone with pink hair wasn't someone you generally associated with dictatorship.  
  
Obviously getting back under control of his wits, Hawk finally replied, "Isabella, long time no see. Is it just me or have you gained some weight?"  
  
"What? I'll have you know that-," the temptress began, before halting, suddenly realising Hawk's purpose. "Ha ha ha, very funny Hawkeye. And you're still calling me Isabella? I'll have you know that's not my real name."  
  
"Who cares what your real name is?!" Angela fumed, her own temper beginning to flare as her initial apprehensions upon meeting what she expected to look like a powerful sorceress decked out in black faded. At least she looked the part of a Delvar, dark hair and a skimpy red dress! Not that she ever actually considered her own clothes skimpy, oh no.  
  
"It's Bigieu. A child of the shadows, I serve the Dark Lord himself! And, seeing as you've come so far, allow me to introduce my assistant.... Jagan."  
  
A second party emerged from the darker recesseses of the throne room on cue. Hawk didn't falter, not even taking his eyes off Bigieu, but Angela felt her skin crawl and even Duran took an involuntary step back.  
  
'Bigieu', if that was her real name, might not have looked the part, but this Jagan fellow certainly did. The Delvar felt a new tweak of fear. Whilst Bigieu looked like her best tricks might have been a high-pitched megalomaniacal laugh and the total devotion of her subjects, all probably more interested in her cleavage than her ideology, Jagan actually LOOKED like he had some nasty spells up his sleeves, with a dark scary cape, pale skin and eerie red eyes.  
  
Then again, looks did tend to be deceiving.  
  
"Where's Jessica?" Hawk demanded, completely ignoring the new threat.  
  
Batting her thick eyelashes at the exiled thief, Bigieu replied, "Her? Oh, I'm keeping her handy in case we need a sacrifice. Don't you worry, both she and your beloved ruler Flamekhan are quite safe... from you. A pity I couldn't do the same for your buddy Eagle."  
  
Hawk's hand visibly quivered at that. What was that about?  
  
"And as for Bill and Ben....," the woman clapped twice, and the two ninja vanished. The Ranger immediately snarled, pressing the blade of his daggers up against the woman's exposed throat again.  
  
"What did you do to them! Bring them back! Release your hold on Navarre and Rolante!"  
  
"Hawk," Angela called in warning, trying to get the obviously unstable thief to back off.  
  
"Oh, you're quite welcome to Rolante," Bigieu invited, still batting those eyelashes. "I have no more use for it. However, I'm afraid it would simply be better to nip this problem in the bud, yes? There's just the three of you, up here all alone, exhausted and some of you even unarmed. What a brilliant opportunity!"  
  
Another twinge of concern. The temptress might not have looked terribly threatening, but she was certainly creepy.  
  
"Take your best shot, Isabella or Bigieu or whatever your name is, I don't care," Hawk said coldly. "I WILL rescue Jessica and Flamekhan and everyone else!"  
  
"You can't rescue anyone if you're dead!" She shouted, suddenly drawing in a magical spell and blasting the thief away from her in a powerufl gale of wind. Caught by surprise, Hawk somersaulted away, managing to land on his feet alongside the Knight and Delvar, who were preparing for what looked to be a hard battle. Jagan drew his cape in closer in obvious anticipation.  
  
It wasn't to be just then, though. Before anyone had the chance to make the next move, Riesz, accompanied by a vocal Carlie and Kevin, came barreling into the throne room, followed by a generous accompaniment of Amazonesses. "Isabella! Go no further!"  
  
Obviously alarmed at how quickly the odds had turned, the confusedly-named temptress turned to her ally. "Jagan! We have to retreat! Um.....We are the children of the shadows. Let us vanish like the night."  
  
"Whoosh!" Jagan announced, and the two vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving everyone coughing.  
  
Angela stared after them. "What a bunch of try-hards. I can't believe such a pair of cheesy losers took over Navarre AND Rolante."  
  
"Those cheesy losers were just about to kill you," the Fairy announced, obviously having no illusions of what the outcome of the battle would have been.  
  
"Thanks so much for your undying support," The Altenan Princess retorted sarcastically. "I thought you were supposed to be on our side." In front of them, Hawk had dropped to his knees, violet hair obscuring his face.  
  
"Hawk? You going to be okay?" Angela asked, concerned as she saw the Ranger's shoulders quivering.  
  
A slight nod from the thief was the only response she could hope to get. Tiredly, Angela blew a strand of loose lavendar hair from her eyes. It had been a rough day. Hawk had finally cornered Isabella, only to have her adopt some weird name that associated her with the underworld and take off with his two friends and who knew what else? Still, she was relieved the battle was over.  
  
Duran went over the thief, obviously asking if he needed any healing. Angela, quite frankly, needed a break. Riesz began directing her soldiers about the palace, obviously checking for any remaining deviants that hadn't already been cleared out.  
  
They all stood in the center of the damaged throne room, a little uncertain of what to do now that they actually had reclaimed the castle. "Well, that was an anti-climax," Angela finally admitted.  
  
"Carlie like going whack-whack on ugly monsters!" the little priestess announced cheerfully.  
  
Riesz rolled her eyes. "I've sent a contigent to go escort the elders to Rolante. Once the council is back in place, I can start organising getting Rolante moving again. That's the most important."  
  
"Gah," Kevin contributed helpfully.  
  
"No!" Carlie demanded in a swift change of mood. "We go pray to Goddess first! Thank Goddess!"  
  
"Gah."  
  
"Look, Carlie, the remains of one of the scary monsters!" Angela said, pointing to the reamins fo the shattered doorframe they'd destroyed earlier.  
  
The tyke was always quick to action. "CARLIE TAKE CARE OF IT! MEET CARLIE'S FRIEND!"  
  
Attacking an innocent already-demolished doorway with her scary morningstar, Carlie began strategically adding to the collateral damage. "Angela!" Riesz admonished, obviously horrified to see her already war- ravaged home being torn to shreds.  
  
Hawk, she had noticed, had cleverly used the opporunity to disappear without anyone's notice. Angela decided this might be a good time to make herself scarce as well. She asked in a quiet whisper whether Duran wanted to come, but the Knight instead insisted on dogging Riesz along with Kevin in trying to assist maintaining some sembelance of order in getting the castle back to functioning. Well, her work was done for the day - she had expelled the invaders, what more did they want? It was getting into the evening as it was now - they had been fighting all afternoon? Riesz was quite happy to point her in the direction of the barracks, so the Princess of Altena quickly left behind yet another crater-ridden throne room to go catch some serious nap-time. Thus the night passed in sweet, sweet unconsciousness, undisturbed even by the Fairy.  
  
Even better, the next morning she awoke to have Duran looking at her instead of Kevin or Carlie. "Duran? What's happening?" Maybe he was here to finally confess his feelings to her. Or maybe to ruin the moment by telling her that he was going to join Rolante's army to marry Riesz. Dammit, Princess, wake up before you start thinking, she ordered herself.  
  
"Morning Princess. I was wondering if you felt ready to leave to head back to King Richard at Forcena today."  
  
"Today?!" Angela asked incredulously, running a hand through her lanvedar hair, and reaching for her cane, before mournefully remembering that it had shattered under the force of her new attack the day previous. What did it take to get a reliable weapon these days? "I suppose so. Fairy bugging you, huh?"  
  
"She is quite anxious," Duran admitted. "Said something along the lines of the fact that if the Wind Mana Stone's energy had been released, it's quite possible the other stones are under threat as well so we didn't really have time to waste."  
  
"So where is she now?" Angela asked, wondering why Duran had to relay this instead of the Fairy taking glee in lecturing the Princess on her responsibilities as a bearer of the Elemental's powers once again.  
  
"With Hawk. 'Maintainance' or something," Duran answered, shrugging. Angela paused. The Fairy actually standing to be in the dirty dangerous thief's presence for more than twenty seconds? The ingrateful little insect was probably pumping the Ranger for information on Navarre or something.  
  
Her answer was given to her a moment later as a very annoyed and tired- looking Hawk walked through the door, the Fairy sitting on his shoulder, obviously still refusing to share his skull even if she did share his company. "Angie, Duran, want to explain this?"  
  
"I just want to make sure you're okay with everything that's happened!" The Fairy protested, voice thick with concern. Angela rolled her eyes, almost feeling sorry for Hawk for a second. A very brief second. Better him than her, after all.  
  
"I said I'm fine! Why should you care, Duran's the chosen Mana Knight, not me! He's the only one that matters!"  
  
"Hmph! That's all the thanks I get! I'll just go where I'm appreciated!" The Fairy snapped back, floating off his shoulder and disappearing into Angela's head.  
  
"Hey! You're not appreciated in there either!" she protested. The Fairy huffed, then finally went back to the correct head, Duran looking confused by the entire exchange.  
  
"Oh, before I forget," Duran muttered, moving to a chest in the corner and withdrawing several items, handing the first to Angela. "Riesz wanted to thank us for our contribution to the liberation, so gave us some tokens of gratitude."  
  
"Alright! That's more like it!" Angela cheered, gleefully inspecting a brand-spanking-new crystal rod. It looked expensive, a true magician's staff. This would surely take quite a lot of stress. She eyed Duran, noting his own new addition at last - a sizeable shield with the Rolante royal crest on it. What was wrong with her, she wasn't even noticing a major addition to Duran's outfit anymore? She must have been more tired than she originally thought.  
  
Seeing her inquisitive glance, Duran explained, "It's an old shield that was usually used by the Kings in the past in Rolante. Riesz said that they didn't need it anymore, as King Joster had already had a new one made for Elliot before he died. My sword was my father's so it's excellent quality, but he never used a shield and I couldn't ever afford to get a decent one myself so...."  
  
"Good for you," Angela congratulated, admiring how the ornate shield looked on the object of her affection. All that machoism, she wasn't sure her fragile little heart could take it!  
  
Hawk was slouching against the wall, looking lost in thought. Turning to him, Angela prodded, "Did Riesz give you anything?"  
  
Shaken from his thoughts, the Ranger looked momentarily confused. "Hm? Uh..... I asked her for a kiss, but I got some extra throwing daggers for the ones I lost in the battle yesterday instead," he replied with a fake cheer.  
  
"Riiiiiight." Angela doubted that if given the chance, whether Riesz really would turn down kissing Hawk, issues of his availability aside.  
  
"Speaking of Riesz, she's in with the councillors praying to the Mana Goddess statue. We'd better say goodbye before we leave," Duran counselled, leading them out the door. Angela hurried to pull on her shoes, racing after them.  
  
"Are you sure that's such a good idea? I mean, Carlie and Kevin will probably be there...."  
  
"We have to at least say goodbye and thank you to her, Princess."  
  
"Say thank you?! That's the second Kingdom we've saved in less than a fortnight! She ought to be thanking us! In fact, we should be charging for this!"  
  
Duran ignored her and opened the door into the room where Riesz, along with a couple of familiar-looking Amazoness guards and councillors were concluding their daily prayer. The windows of the room were still blown out, but no one seemed to mind. It would take a while to rebuild the Kingdom - and Angela, somewhat guilitily, didn't want to know what the cost of repairing the ceremonial throne room's damage from her Diamond Missiles would be. Or Carlie's demonic little morningstar damage either.  
  
"Friend Duran!" Carlie cried happily, immediately running over and giving the Knight's leg a generous hug. "Carlie lead everyone in prayers to the Goddess! Practice for when Carlie is Priestess of Light at Wendel! Carlie good at praying!"  
  
She had to be. If she wasn't, surely the Goddess would have chosen to smite the child years ago.  
  
Riesz still looked tired, even more so than from the day before - whether it was from attempting to rebuild a nation or enduring prayer time with Carlie was anyone's guess. "Ah, you're up. Come to pray to the Goddess? We were just offering our thanks for restoring Rolante to us."  
  
"We'd like to," Duran apologised, "But I'm afraid we're going to have to be heading out to Palo to move on with our journey now. Rolante is safely back in your grasp, but we haven't finished finding all of the Elementals yet."  
  
"You're leaving already?" Riesz asked, eyeing her tagalongs somewhat distastefully.  
  
"Well, you know, the Fairy keeps going on about saving the world and the Mana Stones and all that, can't really waste time!" Angela announced, already edging towards the door.  
  
"I have to stay here for a few days to get the kingdom back up and running again, but after that I'm going looking for Elliot. Maybe I'll run into you along the way?" The Amazoness said hopefully, Angela noting that most of the question seemed directed at Hawk, who didn't really seem to be in the right frame of mind for flirting right at that moment.  
  
"Carlie come! Carlie come!" Carlie suggested enthusiastically. Kevin, in the meantime, seemed torn whether or not to hang around Riesz or Angela; after an obviously long mental battle shifting slightly closer to Riesz, seeing as she was less prone to hitting things and the Delvar's sparkly new staff looked very hard indeed.....  
  
"Ah.... Carlie, isn't it your duty as the future Priestess of Light to help these people in their time of need? Heath would prefer it if you did that first before continuing on your quest," Angela suggested, hoping she sounded sincere.  
  
Apparently she pulled it off, because the little blonde girl's blue eyes widened. "Slutty Girl is right! Maybe Slutty Girl make good Altar Servant at Wendel one day!"  
  
Riesz hid a guffaw masterfully. Angela raised an eyebrow in response, Riesz's smile fading as she suddenly realised that the other Princess had artfully landed the terrifying tyke in her care for at least another couple of days.  
  
"See you Riesz! Maybe we'll run into you on the road!" Angela announced, grabbing a hold of Hawk and dragging him out of the door with her before he could get the notion to kiss the Amazoness goodbye. The thief came with little resistance, Duran following cheerfully, waving goodbye to Riesz, Carlie and Kevin.  
  
Thankfully, this time the journey back to Palo was peaceful, save for a few needlebirds which weren't even annoying now thanks to their news skills they had been acquiring after their class change - in fact, if anything it gave them a chance to practice some of their new techniques. Hawk was silent for most of the trip, obviously still mulling over his brief confrontation with Bigieu the day before, making it largely boring for Angela who just enjoyed practicing influencing the breeze with Jinn's power.  
  
So they soon arrived at Palo by late morning, enjoying walking through the city without the presence of creepy ninjas hanging out to kill them, which always did ruin the tourist experience. They'd barely made it more than halfway to the dock when Hawk suddenly became animated without warning.  
  
Looking to see what had the thief springing into action, Angela noticed a crowd of villagers gathered around what looked like that cat person Hawk had talked to earlier - Nikita was it?  
  
Her suspicions were confirmed as they drew nearer - the villagers shoving Nikita around roughly. "How do you like it? I say we kill him!"  
  
Angela was torn whether to feel disgusted at these people or sympathetic - she supposed that if ninjas had overrun Altena she wouldn't be feeling too charitable towards them, and being a cat merchant who horrendously overcharged people couldn't possibly help.  
  
Apparently Hawk didn't have the same dilemma. He leapt into the thick of the crowd, drawing his short blades. "Nikita, are you alright? Okay, anyone who touches the cat answers to me!"  
  
"Hawk, you're making a scene," Angela whispered, thinking that the towsnpeople probably wouldn't take to him any more kindly than they had taken to any other ninja.  
  
Fortunately, as much as the townspeople didn't like Navarrians at the moment, they didn't feel like picking on one that was armed and keeping company with a swordsman and now-obvious sorceress. Angela almost cursed the crystal cane - it looked great and was surprisingly practical, but it kind of yelled out 'I can use magic!' or 'mug me!'. In fact, she was half surprised Hawk hadn't tried to steal it off her already. Probably if he was in any other state of mind he would have by now.  
  
"Hey, Nikita, are you okay?" Hawk repeated, addressing his friend now. The cat person blinked, then shook his head as though to clear it, staring at the exiled thief in a sort of wonder.  
  
"Hawk? Hawk, it is you! I'm lucky I ran into you!" Nikita chirruped, wrapping the lithe Ranger in a bone-crunching hug, which Hawk awkwardly returned.  
  
Holding out his friend at arms length, Hawk's face turned serious, "Hey, Nikita, what happened to Jessica?"  
  
Nikita's face instantly fell - the sight of it alone made Angela's stomach churn out of worry for a girl she'd never met, so who knew how the Ranger felt? "Maybe we'd better find a place to sit down. I think we have quite a bit to discuss."  
  
Duran was the one to take charge and lead the way towards the inn, where he chose a secluded corner where they wouldn't receive too many murderous glances from the local inhabitants. Lucky for them, the barkeep simply figured business was business and decided not to throw them out.  
  
Hawk waited patiently for Nikita to begin his tale. The first words out of the cat person's mouth were: "Hawk, I'm sorry, I tried to protect Jessica, but Bigieu got me too. Not long after you left, she revealed her true identity and threw Flamekhan into prison in Navarre along with Jessica. They reinforced the walls so that I couldn't bust them out like I did you. She is alive, though." Nikita's face was mourneful. Hawk just nodded tiredly, gesturing for him to continue.  
  
"She got everyone," the merchant rattled on, "Now that she's left Rolante, though, the curse seems to have lifted. But Navarre is still completed under her control - it's been overrun with monsters, Hawk! The Navarre thieves' guild has practically been demolished! I can't figure out what Bigieu's motives are, but she's far from finished. This Jagan character is just as bad, too - came in early on in the piece, they started spending a lot of the time meeting and plotting something. Kept talking about some 'dark lord'. After that, Bigieu nabbed me and I can't remember much else."  
  
Nodding, Hawk finally said, "You did everything you could. Thanks for your help."  
  
"There's a ship designated for all Navarre ninja to evacuate leaving tomorrow morning. It's too dangerous for us to stay in Palo. Are you going to come?" Nikita asked hopefully.  
  
Angela tensed without realising it. The whole point of Hawk's quest was, after all, to save this Jessica. Would he return to go find her? Even Duran looked concerned. If he left, it would be weird travelling without him. As much as she liked the idea of a lot of alone travelling time with Duran, she'd come to grow used to the Ranger's presence, and come to rely on his skills.  
  
After a long silence, Hawk fixed his amber gaze on his companion. "Sorry, Nikita, but I have some other stuff I have to do first. Besides, I have a feeling that if I keep on looking for the Elementals, I'll run into Bigieu and Jessica again."  
  
Crestfallen but understanding, Nikita nodded. "Of course you do. I'll try and find out what I can when I get back to Navarre. You take care. Here's some more of your herbs and a refill on some of your more 'disposable' weapons," he offered, handing out a small pouch.  
  
The thief raised an eyebrow, taking it slowly. "You're not going to charge me three arms and two legs for this?"  
  
"I think everyone at Navarre owes you at the moment. Consider it a token of appreciation."  
  
Hawk pocketed the pouch, then stood, shaking Nikita's paw in farewell, Duran and Angela following suite - the Princess again exhaling in relief, not quite knowing why. It wasn't that big a deal if Hawk decided to keep travelling with them, was it? After all, he wasn't really interested in going after Koren like her and Duran - come to think of it, she hadn't envisioned the Red Wizard's death in a couple of days now.  
  
At the reminder, Angela happily absorbed herself into the daydream once again for the brief walk to the port, only emerging from it to realise that even with Nikita's long-winded explanation of the happenings at Navarre, she still didn't know much about this Flamekhan and Jessica and just what happened with that guy Eagle? Hawk really ought to share some more of his past - on the other hand, though, maybe a thief's past was one she'd prefer not to know.  
  
There was only one ship at the dock ready to sail - the captain was standing by it self-importantly as all ship captains did. Duran approached him with the similar self-importance that all Knights possess, and asked, "Where is this ship headed?"  
  
The captain seemed to size him up, then replied, "Forcena. It's leaving in ten minutes, free trip!"  
  
"Free?" Angela asked incredulously.  
  
"I don't think we should get on any ship that offers us a free ride," Hawk said dubiously.  
  
"Oh, you worry too much," Angela assured him. "Riesz must have arranged it for us! Okay, mister, we'll take it!"  
  
"Hop aboard!" the captain announced, stepping aside to let them on.  
  
"I really think this is a bad idea," Hawk pressed.  
  
The Fairy, once out of sight of the captain, appeared to voice her opinion. "I agree. There's something weird about this ship."  
  
"How else are we going to get to Forcena? What are the chances of there being another ship that'll take us there directly for weeks?" Duran pointed out.  
  
The Fairy grumbled, then settled on Duran's shoulder. Hawk just shrugged.  
  
Making their way towards the cabins, moving past other passengers settling in, they discovered their sleeping arrangements for the trip, and quickly realised that the cabins on the ship were split up into two beds per room. This already had obvious implications.  
  
Obviously finding at least one of his friends in good health had improved Hawk's mood considerably - he was slowly reverting back to his usual outwardly cheerful and flirty self. "I'll sleep in the same room as Angie!" he announced.  
  
Duran paled slightly. "Um, Hawk, I think maybe it would be better if you and I just shared a room instead. The Princess might want her privacy."  
  
Inwardly, Angela gloated. She didn't need to even try anymore. All Hawk had to do was act like himself and Duran started to get protective. At this rate, she might have him in the palm of her hand even before they found all eight elementals. Things were looking up.  
  
"Alright then, out you get and go to your own room," she ordered. "Nobody wake me up until we reach Forcena!"  
  
Slamming the door shut, she smiled to herself. Things were looking up indeed.  
  
_____________________  
  
Wow, that was a long one. Like, 17 pages (admittedly two of those were response to reviewers.) Hope you liked it! Please don't forget to review! Cat food. 


	24. A Ship of GhostLike Things

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for HORROR and SCARY STUFF! (Not really. I had you worried for a minute, though, huh, didn't I? Just say yes.)  
  
Author's note: Okay, so people DO read the author's note, my mistake. Sorry about how long this update took - though I do seem to be apologising for this a lot lately, I really just had no darn excuse this time, I was merely trying to fine-tune this chapter seeing as everyone apparently has unbelievably high expectations for the ghost ship, which I'm pretty sure I didn't meet. News flash people! I'm not actually funny, I'm just someone who tries to be every now and again. Well, either way, no flaming me for this chapter, because I'll tell you all right now, Carlie's not it. I tried it, didn't work, so really, in the end you have YOURSELVES to blame for how late this chapter is. Nyar ha har. I love blaming everyone except myself. Next thing you know, it'll be Santa Claus's fault. (How dare that big man in a red suit DO that? Stalk me 'just me make sure I'm being good.' Sh-yeah, right.)  
  
Response to Reviewers! (We topped 200! Parade! Salutations! Coffee, anyone?):  
  
Rosa-Aquafire: Well, you're a chapter behind but being the nice kind- hearted (cough cough) person I am, I responded anyway! Thanks very much for your high praise, whenever you're busy your reviews are missed. 'Flying Swallow Toss' is just a cool name, forget the technique. None of the others sound half as cool. In fact, I just might do a chapter on that. Thanks, Rosa! P.S. Hawk is HOTT.  
  
Staci/Nadia: Again the length of your review causes me to go scrambling after my eyeballs. Thank you so much! Glad you liked the Bill and Ben battle, I agonised over it (okay, I suppose I don't really AGONISE over anything but you know.. I thought about it sitting on the loo I guess. I'm sure you wanted to know that.) And yes, it was Star Attack Angela used when her staff broke. I needed to get her a new staff. Have seen a little InuYasha, I guess the Fairy is a bit like that. okay, to an alarming degree. Be sure to come back NEXT week for 'Prayer Time With Carlie'. (BTW, I AM joking. I hope.)  
  
ChibiCharizard: It is. I have a hilarious bunch of reviewers in you lot, you're more fun than most of the fics. Sanity! Sanity for everyone! Whee! Um, Char, a lot of people read this story already, how much longer do you really want Response to Reviwers to get? Well, thanks anyway!  
  
Terra: A new reviewer! We now have a special 'bweep' noise just for you people. Thanks for your review, and yes it's Angela/Duran in the game, but that's why this is fanfiction, I guess. I tend to avoid canon for some odd reason.  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: (Bweep). What a cool penname. Thank you very much, and don't worry, whenever Kevin IS in here he only says about three lines anyhow. Strong silent type, you know.  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: The newspaper wasn't interested, but they said maybe if you did something really amazing while you were on a sugar high like.. Okay, I'll stop there, thanks for your review!  
  
Ff.net surfer: Yes, their hair SHOULD be different, but it's not. I didn't want to it be. I ought to put that in the author's note that everyone apparently reads.  
  
Haku Shikome Kido-Mi: (Bweep!) Thank you so much! For reading the author's notes too! I will read and review your story! (If I haven't already! I can't remember. What's my name again?) Everybody loves Carlie, so at least you know you fit in with all of us lunatics. (Except for Empress Faria. But we don't shun her because she's an Empress and she might kill us.)  
  
Solarious: MORE inspiration? Where does it keep coming from? I'm sorry and all, but no Carlie. I did use some ideas, though, thank you. (What did I just tell people about flames, huh? No frying people on my watch! You can hack them to pieces or make them explode, coz I so love explosions, but no flames!) As always, thanks for your review.  
  
Bishiehuggler: (Bweep!) - I just put that one in to strike terror into your heart. I put the shop-keeper in. He was fun to write.  
  
Wingnut: More people seem to want cat food than coffee... I just got an idea for Bigieu... the tyrannosaurus has been 'taken care of' by some cleaning people. No, really, they were just ordinary cleaners, mops and stuff, boy were they scary! And the good news is, now I don't have to buy meat for the next twelve years. Thanks. And why do you keep bringing up this word 'ami'?! It does NOT mean 'friend' in Japanese! No, wait, Minerva I was just kidding, please don't hurt me..  
  
Oxi-Nu: I checked out McDonalds and you're a rotten filthy LIAR Oxi-Nu. That's right. But never mind, I just bought seven packs of ramen noodles and a loaf of bread and I'm good for a week. And I'm sorry, but I have this policy about not marrying people I've never met. (Or really just marriage full stop.) Thank you anyway. Ah, I love your reviews, hope you keep reading.  
  
Cutsy: Quite a few people seem to think that they were the 200th reviewer. well, congratulations and thank you? Of course you can't take over the world, I'M taking over the world. But I'll be happy to let you help and will give you a position of power for your efforts.  
  
Wings of Lead: Very observant of you (scrolls back to check). Um, yes, I DID do that on purpose. I think. I did warn people that I idolise Hawk.. Hope you like this chapter, thanks for your review!  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: I was going to give the 200th reviewer an award, like maybe a fic of their choice or something, but when I counted up the reviewers I got a different result every time, and Cutsy thinks she's 200, and then there's.. ah well, we'll try for three hundred then? Goddess knows how many chapters this story is going to take at this rate.. Thanks for your review!  
  
Slash the Ironman: Read! Find out! And beat those darn siblings away with a spoon! (But.. There is no spoon.. bwa ha ha I'm so NOT funny..)  
  
Mig-31: Carlie's not on peoples. Sorry, but no flames! (Though it IS cold in here.) You must be psychic. I'm reporting you to the FBI. But yes, the fic is currently sticking to the game, but in another few chapters I think I'll have some minor 'deviations' (heh heh heh cough cough hack). I say nothing.  
  
Cookie Pixie: I LOVE those titles. They crack me up. Fair enough, heck, I didn't like that chapter either. Hope you like this one.  
  
WaterDragonerS: There's TWO of you? (This even FURTHER messes up my review-counting!) -Looks over shoulder- HA! I see you! And the person you're watching is my doppleganger! Good work, my little clone, would you like a Smacko?  
  
^_^: Your apple was the first one I've eaten in two years, and I haven't been to the doctor in six, so there might be something wrong with that saying. (Drops over dead). Who dislikes Riesz? What? Did I miss something? AGAIN? You keep reading and I'll keep writing, thanks for the review!  
  
Shade: (Are you SURE you're not being sarcastic? Sounded sarcastic. and maybe even vaugely threatening.. Ooooo.) But thank you, it means a lot. It really does. And if you make faces like that, they might stick. (...COOL! *+0)  
  
I'm amazed no one's complained about how long Response to Reviewers is yet.. Oh well. Thanks guys! Sorry this chapter was late, hope you like. (And no, Carlie's not in it.)  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 24 - A Ship of Ghost-Like Things  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
They were on a boat, being softly rocked into blissful slumber.  
  
That was, until a scream tore through the night.  
  
Angela sat up straight in bed, reaching out and grabbing her cane on instinct. A moment later, Hawk himself burst through the door.  
  
"Angie! Are you alright?"  
  
'Angie', was just fine. Hawk, on the other hand, was soon to be suffering horribly.  
  
"You sick twisted pervert! What did you do now?!"  
  
"I didn't do anything!" Hawk protested. "I heard the scream and came to find out if you were alright!" Duran appeared half-asleep behind the thief in the doorway a moment later, still tugging on his boots, sword and shield in hand.  
  
"A likely story! How did you get here so quickly, then, fully dressed?! And it wasn't me who screamed!"  
  
"Then who was it?" Duran wondered, obviously perplexed. "Is another passenger in peril?"  
  
The Ranger shook his head. "No. We're the only people on this ship."  
  
"WHAT?" Angela shrieked, leaping entirely out of the bed now, though present in mind enough to make certain she was properly covered. Of course, she reflected belatedly, it would have been interesting to see if THAT would have got a reaction out of the stoic Duran. In fact, had Hawk not been there, she might have gone to the trouble to ensure the slip of a shoulder strap.  
  
"There aren't any other passengers. I checked it out."  
  
"Looking to steal their purses while they slept were you?"  
  
"Erm...... Maybe."  
  
"Look, if it wasn't you and it wasn't us and it wasn't any other passengers...... then who was it?" Duran asked, stepping in before blows could be exchanged.  
  
Silence.  
  
"And what happened to all the other passengers we saw when we boarded?" Angela wondered out loud. "And the Captain? Hawk, are you saying that we're ALL alone on this ship?"  
  
Hawk nodded. "Not only that, the ship's in terrible condition. Either we're all going insane, or we were duped by a very clever illusion."  
  
The Fairy, shimmering into existence, added her worthless opinion to the discussion. "I think it's a magical illusion. I can't almost swear that I sense the presence of an Elemental here."  
  
Curious, Angela tentatively reached out with her magical senses. Something was there all right, but it felt different to the other Elementals. How could they be sure? And what would a Mana Stone be doing on a ship? This was crazy! Maybe she was dreaming again. But then again, there was no Koren being slaughtered by Beastmen in here, so maybe not. Her grip on reality was being severely threatened lately. "I suppose the only thing to do is go and find out what's going on," she admitted, pulling on her shoes and brushing out her hair. Duran and Hawk were both already full clothed, though Duran still looked a little dishevelled from being woken up so abruptly.  
  
They entered into the empty corridors of the ship - it was dark, completely devoid of any lamps, but there was fortunately enough moonlight to see by, and the Fairy's slight glow helped enough that they didn't have to directly resort to using her as their light source once again. It was deathly silent, making Angela wince every time she took a step and the floor boards creaked beneath her. Had she put on weight or something? That seemed impossible given the crash-dieting and extremes of exercise this crazy adventure had put on her. Then again, Duran, heavy with all of his Knightly chestplate armour and shield and everything else, practically put his foot through the half-rotten floor a couple of times along the way. Only Hawk managed to walk along with any sense of stealth - damn thieves.  
  
"Let's try in there," Angela suggested, pointing to the door to a large dining room. It would be pointless to check all of the rooms - on a ship this size it could take forever!  
  
Hawk shrugged, picking the lock on the door and pushing it open. Duran stepped in first, then came scrambling out backwards mere moments later. "Ghosts! There's ghosts in there!"  
  
"You mean this ship is haunted?!" Angela shrieked.  
  
The Fairy rolled her eyes. "You mean you didn't figure that out already? Creepy noises, vanishing passengers, cobwebs, rotting wood...."  
  
"Alright alright, I get the picture already! Smart-ass know-it-all Fairies.... Just keep going. If they're ghosts, how can they possibly hurt us?" Confidently, Angela strode into the room, Duran following timidly, looking like... well, like he'd just seen a ghost. She supposed Knights weren't as clued in on the magical and supernatural as magicians from Altena were.  
  
The door swung shut behind them. Despite her bravado, Angela couldn't stop herself from jumping reflexively. "Well, that's eerie," Hawk commented nonchalently.  
  
"You're not helping Hawk," Angela hissed.  
  
Before the Ranger could reply, the two of them got to see what had Duran spooked in the first place - manifesting themselves into the air a series of wispy creatures and small devils appeared, surrounding them in a circle.  
  
"Uh oh," Angela said emphatically.  
  
"They sure look like they want to attack, Princess," Duran commented, edging back away from the nearest miniature devil.  
  
"Watch out!" Hawk warned, flipping out his twin blades and parrying a blow from one small ghosts' pitch forks. "They're only half ghost! When they turn solid they can attack you!"  
  
"Then when they turn solid we'll just attack them!" Angela deduced, whirling around to whack a nearby ghost on the head, doing just that. There was a painful moan in the air, and the spirit dissapated. "Come on, don't just stand there and let me do all the work!"  
  
Nodding, Duran and Hawk sprang into action, picking out one of their numerous foes, waiting for them to attack then attempting to get them in the counterattack. "This is a lot harder than it sounds, Princess."  
  
"Just think about killing a ghost Koren! It'll make it go quicker!" the Delvar advised, swinging around in surprise as one of the ethereal beings snuck up on her from behind. "HOLY BALL!" A ear-splitting howl later, the spirit withered away into invisible spirit-dust. No need for cleaning fairies here! Which was a good thing, because a ship in this condition clearly had none of the Fairy's fanciful little buddies on it. And if it ever got some, their tiny little hearts would probably stop beating on sight.  
  
"Hey, Angie, that was still in its ghost form," Hawk noted in surprise.  
  
The Fairy, obviously figuring that ghosts wouldn't hurt her, appeared on Duran's shoulder. "If they're kept here by dark magic, then light magic would dispel them. Just use Holy Ball, Angela."  
  
"Yeah? My magic can kill them whatever they are? Great!" Angela commented gleefully, gripping her cane with a malicious grin on her face. "HOLY BALL! HOLY BALL!" Two more of the restless dead shrieked in pain and vanished from existence.  
  
"Down in front, Hawk!" Duran warned, the thief managing to leap just out of range of the pitch fork's swing, running back in to deliver a blow.  
  
"Argh, these things are more annoying than Carlie! Stop vanishing!" Hawk cursed, catching air once again. Duran's eyebrow twitched as he was too slow to catch his opponent for the third time in a row.  
  
Waiting for the spirits to turn corporeal for their attacks so that they could kill them was clearly frustrating both Duran and Hawk. Angela, on the other hand, was learning more fully the joys of magic. "HOLY BALL! Ha! Take that, you fiend of the underworld!"  
  
"She's getting entirely too into this," the Fairy commented. Hawk and Duran just nodded worriedly.  
  
Finally, all of the ghosts were defeated, or fled for their sorry non- existent lives. The door came unlatched again as the magic holding it closed was dispelled.  
  
"Well, that was fun. I infer, by the lack of anything here, that we will find no more clues in this room! Let's keep going," The Princess ordered, shuffling her two companions and spare insect from the room.  
  
They silently, except for the Fairy who kept chattering on about this magic and that magic and why ghosts were ghosts blah blah blah, continued along the corridor, hoping to reach some sort of captain's quarters to get some clues, find the captain, or anything remotely helpful. They only encountered one or two more of the creepy little ghost-things that inhabited this broken down oversized dingy, but after their earlier practice these were quickly disposed of.  
  
"Hey," Hawk called, stopping by a wall where a piece of paper, yellowed from age, was carelessly tacked up. "What do you think this?"  
  
"Book of Curses, Book of Death, Book of Blood, Book of Death," Duran read aloud.  
  
"I pity that poet. I bet he died a starving artist," Angela commented.  
  
"I don't think that's a poem," the Fairy interjected witheringly. "Sounds like some sort of passcode."  
  
"A passcode? I know you have a tiny skull, Fairy, but is there anything in it? One, what good could a password serve on an abandoned ghost ship, and secondly, if it's a passcode it should be secret so why tack it up in the hallway?" Angela berated.  
  
The Fairy had no response to that, settling on Duran's head to pout for a while. Satisifed that she had at last shut the presumptuous miniature deity up, the magician pointed towards a door up ahead. "Now that we've figured out that this clue is completely useless, let's continue on to there. If that's not the captain's quarters, I'll be damned."  
  
"Considering we're on a ghost ship, that's may not be terribly far from a possibility," Duran commented darkly, eyes still roaming endlessly, ready for any more surprise attacks.  
  
"Why, Duran, I never knew you were afraid of ghosts," Angela commented innocently.  
  
"I'm not! I mean, no, I just...."  
  
From behind, Hawk tapped him on the shoulder. Duran jumped. "YAAAHHHH!"  
  
"Hey there, Duran."  
  
"Hawk! Don't do that!" The Knight half-yelled, eyes wild. The thief shrugged and grinned.  
  
"Settle, children," the Fairy admonished condescendingly as Angela pushed open the door into what looked like the captain's quarters.  
  
"I'll be. Nothing here either except for a crummy old bookcase," she observed, shoulders slumping in defeat. She was officially out of ideas. It was starting to look like they really were the only ones on this ship. How did that work? Did coincidence hate them that much? The Mana Goddess must really have it in for them - maybe the Fairy had bugged her as much in the Mana Holyland as the insect did here, and now they were suffering the Goddess's revenge!  
  
"Wait a minute." Hawk walked over to the dusty old bookcase, and began to read the titles of the spines aloud. "Book of Death, Book of Curses, Book of Blood.... sound familiar?" He pulled up each of the books in the order of the strange little poem. A moment later, by some odd mechanism, the book shelf swung open, revealing the way into another room; a captain's study of sorts.  
  
"What did I tell you?" the Fairy asked smugly.  
  
"Jackpot!" The Princess artfully ignored their quasi-guardian guide post magical tag-along. "Surely there ought to be some clues in here."  
  
Duran moved to the desk, picking up a journal. "Ship's Journal. Let's see....." He trailed off, face turning ghostly pale. The Fairy, shrieking, fled his head.  
  
"Duran?!" Angela screeched, as the Knight turned from ghostly pale to just darn ghostly. The journal dropped to the floor through transparent hands.  
  
Laughter echoed eerily throughout the study. "Free! Free at last!" Another ghost, looking suspiciously like the ship's captain that had lured them aboard in the first place, manifested himself on the other side of the room. Hawk had his daggers drawn in an instant. "Freefreefree Ha Ha Ha!"  
  
"Yeah yeah, stop gloating, what did you do to Duran?! Answer or I'll Holy Ball your ass all the way to the Underworld!" Angela ordered.  
  
Doing a ridiculous ghostly dance, the apparition cheerily informed them, "He's cursed! Cursed as a ghost! But his curse sets me free! Ahahahahah!"  
  
Ghost Duran opened his mouth to say something about that, but looked extremely annoyed when no sound came out.  
  
"If there's a curse, then there must be a cure!"  
  
The specter just grinned at them, still laughing.  
  
"I don't see what so funny here!! That does it! HOLY-"  
  
"Wait! Wait!" the deceased ship captain pleaded, suddenly serious. It was amazing how the threat of a little violence could bring someone around. Suddenly so much of Carlie's personality was beginning to make sense..... "If you go to the deck of the ship and kill Genova, the curse on your friend will be lifted! He's the one who cursed me and this ship to begin with! Now, if you'll excuse me-" the apparition said, obviously anxious to get away from the scary Delvar and her sparkly cane. He faded into nothingness.  
  
"He's gone into the next world at last," the Fairy said wistfully.  
  
"Who cares about that?! We have bigger problems! Like the fact that Duran's a ghost is pretty high in the agenda! We have to go kill this Genova thing!" Angela ranted, wringing her hands. "I thought you would at least care about Duran - he's your chosen Mana Knight! Show a little sensitivity!" Having your fantasy dream guy die right before your eyes was NOT a sign of a healthy future relationship, to boot.  
  
"Well, for the time being then, I choose my new Mana Knight as...." The Fairy paused, obviously torn in her decision.  
  
"Hey, look, letter openers!" Hawk called out, gleefully stuffing three of them in his pocket.  
  
Decision made, the Fairy said, "Angela! You'll be the new Mana Knight! Just in case we can't save Duran."  
  
"Can't save DURAN?" The thought was too horrible to bear.  
  
"Hey," the Ranger observed suspiciously, "So the only reason you insist on three of us being in the party to go to the Mana Holyland is in case something happens to the chosen Mana Knight?"  
  
"Um.....," the Fairy began to look hedgy.  
  
"WHAT? We're backups?!"  
  
Ghost Duran in the meantime had sulkily crossed his arms and sat down on the floor, obviously annoyed at having to be left out of what was sounding like to be a good and just battle to save his life. Which kind of didn't exist at the moment to be saved, but they'd get to work on that straight away. Or at least soon.  
  
"Just never mind, if you save him you don't have to worry then, do you?" The Fairy urged.  
  
"What if we all die, what then? Do you go find three other sorry losers to go on your little quest?" Angela continued to rage.  
  
"See you, Duran! We'll be back later!" Hawk called, shoving the Princess and the Fairy out of the door. "Read a book or something until we get back. No, not that book - Book of Curses might be helpful! Book of Death while you're at it, just in case...."  
  
"I thought you were supposed to be his friend," Angela scolded. "Poor Duran.... We must rescue him! There's no choice, now, I can't possibly handle having this thing in my head full-time!"  
  
"I resent that!"  
  
"Given the fact that you're just using us as tools, that's going light on you!"  
  
"This'll make it easier on Duran anyway," she counselled, "Duran was scared witless of all this paranormal stuff."  
  
"What, and being turned into a ghost and left all on his own in that creepy study WOULDN'T freak him out?"  
  
Long silence. "Well, you have a point there...."  
  
Most of this tirade continued as they made their way up through the first two maze-like levels of the ship, before the Fairy finally decided to just sit in Angela's skull and shut up, letting the Princess throw around her Holy Balls indiscriminately without any interruption. Because of how decreipt the ship was many of the pathways were blocked, and not wanting to test the integrity of the ship's strucure with several explosions, it was taking them longer than they would have liked to reach the deck where this Genova apparently resided.  
  
Sighing as she dispatched yet another of the lost souls on the ship, she pushed open what she hoped was the doorway into one of the last rooms leading upstairs onto the deck. As soon as she and Hawk stepped inside, though, the door swung shut behind them again.  
  
"I really wish it would stop doing that," Hawk sighed.  
  
"I wish Duran was here."  
  
"So you could perv on him while he's battling? Save his life, maybe?"  
  
"Look who's talking!"  
  
Predictably, the room began to fill with several possessed spirits. With a calm efficiency, the two heroes proceeded to attempt to dispatch them, moving in synchronisation; Angela hurling Holy Balls around the room like they were going out of style while Hawk covered her flank.  
  
Slightly out of breath, the Princess disposed of the last of them. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. These things just don't stop!"  
  
"Well, they seem to be gone for now at least," Hawk noted with relief. "Come on, Angie, let's not keep your boyfriend waiting."  
  
"We haven't talked about it yet so I'd appreciate you to not be making any comments!"  
  
'Given the fact that you haven't flirted with Duran in over a week and have been giving Hawk all of your attentions instead, you must be more transparent than I thought,' the Fairy laughed.  
  
'Shut up, insect, or find a new Mana Hero! And no mind reading while you're in there, either!'  
  
'I'm only here until you free Duran! So it's in your best interests to do so! And am I the only one paying attention to that ghost in the corner over there?'  
  
'What?' Jerking her attention back to the outside world, she noticed Hawk was facing off with a new apparation in the corner of the room, surrounded by several barrels of goods. He didn't seem hostile like the others. Cautiously, Angela approached.  
  
"Careful Angie," the Ranger warned, keeping close by her side, just in case.  
  
"The only thing I have to be careful of around here is you. Keep your distance," Angela hissed back, in no mood for flirting without Duran around to witness it.  
  
"Good day, miss! And you too, mister! How can I help you today?" the apparition cordially invited.  
  
"Um.... who are you?" Angela questioned.  
  
"Why, I'm a merchant! Isn't it obvious? Would you like to buy something? My goods are top-quality, I assure you!"  
  
"Well, what do you sell?" Angela asked, trying to get over the fact that a ghost was trying to sell her stuff. That was one dedicated merchant, trying to get rid of stock all the way from the underworld. Or perhaps it was merely an ironic punishment for all the customers he had swindled in his previous life.  
  
"I sell nearly everything! Jams, walnuts, magic herbs, and this little doo- whackey here that does nothing but go in circles," the ghost merchant listed off.  
  
"Oooo, let me see that," Hawk said enthusiastically.  
  
"Are you hungry? I have some dried rations as well!"  
  
Picking over the afore-mentioned rations, Angela wrinkled her nose in disgust. "These are all stale and mouldy! Do you really expect anyone to eat this? It's poison!"  
  
"This IS a ghost ship..... Fine then, don't buy rations, but all the herbs keep really well," he offered helpfully.  
  
"Well, I could use some magical herbs....," the Delvar mused, feeling magically exhausted. Correct that, she NEEDED some magical herbs if they wanted to last long enough to free Duran from that damn curse. She was willing to bet, given the unfortunate nature of most of their so-called 'adventures' lately, that Genova wouldn't go down easily.  
  
"Okay then! It's only thirty-two shells!"  
  
Hawk paused in his fiddling to fix his amber gaze on the ethereal being. "What? You are aware that shells haven't been used as currency for over a hundred years."  
  
"I've been dead for at least as long! Give me a break! Fine then, what's your current currency?"  
  
"Gold pieces."  
  
"All right then. The cost in gold pieces would be.... 300 gold pieces for a bag!"  
  
Angela nearly choked. "For a ghost you sure drive a hard bargain! Do you really expect ANYONE to buy at those prices?!"  
  
"Well, do you see any competition for me on this ship?"  
  
"You don't happen to be distantly related to Nikita by any chance?" Hawk asked skeptically.  
  
"Whatever do you mean? I'm a very rare, one-of-a-kind travelling cat merchant!"  
  
"Angie, we have no hope of driving a bargain."  
  
"You're right about that. Wait a moment.... if you're a ghost, there's nothing to stop us from just taking your herbs! You're dead! You can't do a thing!" the Delvar realised, beginning to smile.  
  
Hawk paused, matching her grin. "A woman after my own heart."  
  
"Awww, shucks," the merchant complained, folding his arms as Angela reached through him and picked up the bag of magical herbs.  
  
"Nyaaa, learn how to drive a respectable business if you want to make money after you die!" she taunted, sticking out her tongue.  
  
"That made no sense, Angela," the Fairy informed her, appearing on her shoulder.  
  
Angela pretended not to hear, instead swallowing down some of the foul magical herbs, enjoying the re-invigorating feeling of her magical strength being replenished.  
  
"You know, Angie, ignoring her won't make her go away," Hawk informed her.  
  
"I can still try."  
  
"What about if I lower the price to 200 gold pieces?" the merchant suggested hopefully.  
  
"Did you die from a lack of a brain?"  
  
"I hope you don't mind if I keep this," Hawk said, pocketing the strange doo-whackey he'd been playing with earlier.  
  
"As if you'd really give it back anyway."  
  
"Let's just keep going, okay?" the Fairy requested tiredly, suddenly overtly anxious to return to the comparitive sanity and righteousness of Duran's company.  
  
Shrugging, the Princess and the thief continued on past the begging dead merchant to the ladder, leading up towards the deck. As soon as they pulled themsleves from the trap hole, they were blasted with a freezing, salty wind. The air and waves crashed around them, almost defeaning as the ship creaked and rattled, at the mercy of the waves. It was night, so dark that it was impossible to even see any stars, and the ship seemed to be surrounded by a strange fog.  
  
"This couldn't get any creepier if it tried," Angela yelled over the gale.  
  
"It could if Genova came out!" Hawk replied, craning his neck to see around the tattered remains of the sail.  
  
Cue Genova. These creepy monsters were really quite good at their timing.  
  
A ghost-like creature, easily ten times larger than any of the other dead on the ship, swirled out of the mist, coming towards them.  
  
"Ahhhh! HOLY BALL!" Angela panicked.  
  
The light spell temporarily stopped Genova in its tracks, as it focused its beady little eyes on them. Maybe not the brightest thing to have done - now it KNEW they were enemies.  
  
"Wait, we can talk about this! Hawk! DO something!"  
  
The agile Ranger was already one step ahead - he flung out his now- trademark series of daggers at their opponent, cursing as they all passed harmlessly through it. "I don't have any magic, Angie! I can't do anything unless it turns corporeal!"  
  
"Fine then, you lazy sloth, leave it all up to me! HOLY BALL! And again!" The Princess yelled, pummeling Genova with successive spells. It didn't seem to be doing much more than a bit of superficial damage.  
  
'I think you're only making it mad,' The Fairy noted.  
  
"I think I don't care! Die again already! Wow, I would have hated to meet this thing while it was still living!"  
  
"Hey, where did it go?" Hawk yelled, as Genova suddenly vanished back into the mist.  
  
"Do you think it left?" Angela asked, lowering her cane slightly.  
  
'Look out! Dark magic!' the Fairy mentally screeched.  
  
Seeing what looked like a very frightening dark magic spell barreling towards her, the Delvar barely managed to dodge the barrage - she could have sworn she could feel it clip the edge of her foot. Hawk leapt to the side similarly, though now they were separated as Genova came rushing back onto the scene, swiping a powerful hand at the surprised thief with enough force to sweep him overboard.  
  
"HAWK!" Angela screamed as the Ranger vanished from sight, and the only reply that greeted her was another crash of a wave. "You bastard!" Again, she felt that odd magical energy surge from her fingertips as she concentrated her magical energy, and a powerful cluster of magical energy conglomerated and shot through her staff, hitting Genova squarely in the face. Fortunately, this time the staff didn't shatter. She'd thank Riesz later.  
  
THAT did some damage. The creepy being wailed in pain, writing about in agony. Time to finish the monster off! "HOLY BALL!"  
  
Genova finally whimpered and disappated, effectively defeated. The fog and darkness seemed lift slightly, but Angela was too busy running over to the side of the ship. Dear Goddess, Hawk wasn't- he couldn't be, she'd tried to kill the damn thief so many times already and he kept coming through!  
  
"Hawk!" she called. "Hawk, answer!"  
  
"A little help, please Angie?" a voice asked somewhere near her left foot.  
  
Leaning over to the side of the ship, she saw the Ranger, his two blades embedded in the hull, holding on for dear life. Reaching down, she grasped his hand and pulled him to safety. Crawling back aboard, drenched with seawater, looking like a drowned desert rat, Hawk sprawled on his back, Angela doing likewise a moment later. "Don't ever do that again!"  
  
"Why, Angie, were you WORRIED about me?"  
  
"Don't make me throw you back overboard!"  
  
The Fairy hovered over them both, checking for injuries. "You'll both be okay, you're just exhausted."  
  
"We don't need you to tell us that," Angela snapped, all of the stress catching up with her. It was days like this she was really regretting fleeing Altena. Of course, the thought that her mother had tried to kill her did kind of weigh fairly heavily on her mind, but still.....  
  
In all the chaos of nearly losing Hawk overboard, she had almost forgotten about Duran for a moment - he chose that moment to bound onto the scene, alive and well once again apparently.  
  
"That was quick," Hawk commented.  
  
"Duran!" The Fairy ecstatically flew back over to him. "You are now officially reinstated as the Mana Knight!"  
  
Nodding his thanks, the Knight asked, "What happened? When I turned back to normal I came straight up here, no more ghosts at all. It's like they all fled the ship."  
  
"Indeed they did," a new voice answered, interrupting their conversation.  
  
Standing and turning to face the voice, the three witnessed the very creepy sight of what looked like a giant floating eye, with wings and a tail of darkness. "Shade?" The Fairy asked incredulously. There really was an Elemental on this ship? Darn, the Fairy was actually right about something. Aside from that poem thing. And the magic thing. And.. There was an Elemental on the ship!  
  
"It is good to see you, Fairy, though your being here is a dire portent," the Elemental replied.  
  
"THIS is Shade, the Elemental of Darkness? Then where is the Mana Stone?" Angela demanded. At least, she admitted, Shade was a little more like what she expected an Elemental to be - certainly a great deal more dignified than its counterparts.  
  
"Alas, the Stone has been lost for some time, centuries even. I was trapped by here by Genova on this ship - there is no Mana Stone of Darkness anymore."  
  
"But... then where is the God-Beast?" The Fairy seemed fearful.  
  
"I am uncertain.... it caused some havoc for a time, then disappeared. Perhaps it fled to another dimension before the Goddess could act."  
  
There was a long silence as this sunk in. Why couldn't they ever get GOOD news?  
  
"Well, it can't bother us from there, can it?" Duran said cheerfully. "Shade, will you help us like the others anyhow?"  
  
"Of course," the Elemental replied. "Firstly, the Delvar.... I grant you the power of my magic. Use it wisely."  
  
"I think we can rule that out," the Fairy muttered.  
  
Paying no heed to the presumptuous magical being, Angela enjoyed once again the thrill of being imbued with new magical powers. But Shade's power... oh yes, she felt an affinity for this. She could do a lot with this ability - perhaps it had something to do with being a Delvar.  
  
"Shade, I don't suppose, seeing as your ship here was rife with curses, you know anything about lifting them?" Hawk asked hopefully.  
  
"My apologies, Ranger, but only the Goddess can provide the way to lift the curse."  
  
The Navarrian nodded tiredly. What a wild goose chase this was turning into. In an effort to change the subject, Angela asked, "So why did all the ghosts flee?"  
  
"Seeing as it was my power keeping this ship floating, now that I am no longer bound to it it will sink," Shade answered calmly.  
  
"WHAT?!!!"  
  
"Oh, there it goes now," the Elemental noticed.  
  
The next wave effectively crushed the boat. Before any of them even had the chance to curse, they were flung from the wreckage, and into the ocean. For Hawk, the second time in less than an hour.  
  
It was really not their day.  
  
_____________________  
  
There it is. The Ghost ship chapter. (Did I at last catch up to Truewind? Must.. Speed. type..) Hope you liked it. Please review. 


	25. Ka Boom

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. I also warn you that Response to Reviewers is out-of-controlledly (not a real word, don't use at home) long! Feel free to skip ahead to the pretty line for the chapter; I'm sure I don't say anything TOO important (just details of my plans to take over the world. That's all.)  
  
Author's note: Sorry again for how long it's taking me to update lately, I'm still grappling with this concept of them wanting us to 'work' at University. 'Work?' What is this thing called 'work' that you speak of? But I DID update eventually, didn't I? Didn't I? ... Why are you all holding weapons?  
  
Response to Reviewers!:  
  
White Chocolate: (Victory dance!) - new reviewer alert! For some reason your reviews disappeared from the review page, but I replied regardless. I too dislike cannon couples, which I guess is the point of fanfiction.. You have a very full life, I'm amazed you have time to review this humble story. Music camp would be more fun in a peaceful suburb where you could practice with the entire orchestra late at night and drive everyone insane, only to leave three days later before they can enact their revenge. (Pats head). There there, I'm a geek who watches all the Japanese Sailormoon too. Thanks for your review.  
  
Rosa Aquafire: Thank you for your support Rosa! Saves me at least three lines in Response to Reviewers and the Author's Notes that everyone apparently reads. I'm sorry, but it's going to take a painfully long time for any real Hawk/Angela action - I put in some scenes this chapter to appease you though, I hope. (Aww, I want a Hawk plushie too!)  
  
Wingnut: O.o? (Goes and sits in a corner, rocking back and forth.) Once I have fully deciphered that review, I will challenge Arianrod for leadership of the world.  
  
Yukariyo: (Victory dance!) I never claimed to be an expert on flirting, but I try. Hope you like this chapter.  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: (Earth is falling out of solar orbit. No sugar high?) Thanks for your review.  
  
WaterDragonerS: Ah well. Thanks for your review. I must find this patch you speak of...  
  
Solarious: I thought Truewind was a girl.. Well, thanks for your review, and I hope you like this chapter! Sorry about the lack of inclusion of the tiger bikini everyone, but, well - point finger innocently - Truewind already did it. (Ahead again! Must. type.)  
  
Oxi-Nu: /Emote. (????)  
  
^_^: You're right, there wasn't a ghost ancestor of Nikita on that ship in the GAME, but I never said that this was going to be accurate. The doo- whackey is just that. It will forever remain undescribed. (Initiates plans to kill off reviewers by laughing them to death. Oh wait, for that I have to be FUNNY! Oh darn.)  
  
Bishiehuggler: I have no words. Thank for you for you review.  
  
Slash the Ironman: Thank you. Ha ha. Ha.  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: I reallyreallyreallyreallyreally thank you. X4. I could never remember the book thing either. In fact, I probably got it wrong. BTW, everyone, there's a hiatus on the dark magic, simply because I can include only so many features per chapter. I had no idea that the doo- whackey would be so popular.. I should try and sell it to people. Maybe I could use the profits to buy food. Wow, food...  
  
Shade: Thank you for the warning. And the review. And your undying gratitude. And for that statue of Duran outside my window. That was you, right?  
  
Ff.net surfer: Yes, I belatedly realised that I had got Gorva and Genova confused - they sound so much alike! Sorry guys. It's been a while since I've played, to be honest. Please don't kill me.  
  
Wings of Lead: I don't know, I figured that if the Fairy ever does go into Hawk's head it should be an event. I will say nothing more, except for thanks for the review as always.  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: Okay, now you guys are just badgering me about Gorva and Genova. I got it, okay? I UNDERSTAND! I'M SORRY! I'm not worthy of writing this, obviously, I'll just stop this fic right now! ...(Nah, just kidding, thanks for poitning it out, I suddenly feel enlightened. Had you worried, though, didn't I? No? Aw, shucks.)  
  
Cookie Pixie: Shade was fun to write. Wanted something different from the other dysfunctional Elementals. Have to agree with you on all points - who sticks up a password in a bloody hallway? Really. Thanks for you review, as always, hope you like this chapter as much.  
  
WolfOfDarkness: (Victory Dance!) I made someone's sibling think they are crazy! YAY!  
  
AGAIN (I hope you're all as sick of hearing this as I am) sorry for the delay, and thank all of you for reviewing! Please put away the weapons till AFTER the chapter, please? (Gives me time to hide.)  
  
Cat food.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 25 - Ka Boom  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Tranquil ocean. Beautiful beach. The gentle sound of wind and waves mixing with a faint salty scent in the air.  
  
It would have been a really nice thing to wake up to usually.  
  
If it wasn't interuppted but the feeling of what felt like ants biting her face.  
  
"Argh! What?!" Angela yelled, sitting up suddenly, waving her hands around in a semi-conscious panic.  
  
"Eeep! She's awake, Duran!" an all-too-familiar voice called.  
  
The Knight came running on to the scene, looking less handsome than usual, with sand in his hair and bits of seaweed still stuck to his clothes. Well, she supposed she could get used to the rugged look. "Princess! Are you okay?"  
  
"Exthept that I have sand in mai mouth an that thing was slfapping me awake," the Delvar spat out a mouthful of sand, sitting up and feeling for her cane. A sparkle caught her eye - it was resting on the beach several metres away from her. Being slapped awake by the Fairy! How insulting! Especially after how gracious she was in being the temporary Mana Knight! The little deity would get hers later.  
  
"That's good, I was worried when the Fairy woke me up and no one else was nearby." Duran looked relieved. She didn't know why - the Knight was obviously heartier than he looked, and a great deal luckier, if he could swim to shore with all of that armour. He had probably just sunk to the bottom and walked the rest of the way. Either that or their growing arsenal of Elementals were increasing their survival rates in unlikely situations.  
  
"What about you?" She asked belately. Come to think of it, the Forcenan was looking a little pale.  
  
"I don't feel too good - I swallowed a fair bit of seawater, but I'll be fine," he replied, obviously too tired from the whole ordeal to act all macho about it like most Knights were inclined to do.  
  
Nodding in sympathy, she asked, "Where's Hawk?  
  
"He's over the next dune!" the Fairy called from atop the next sand hill, having put her tempoaray flee from Angela's wrath to good use.  
  
Duran gallantly helped her to her feet, but she was still too far out of it to really revel in the tiny victory. They clambered up the sand dune, and immediately spotted the thief sprawled on the beach, still unconscious.  
  
"Hey! How dare you sleep while I work! Wake up, Hawk!" Angela yelled as they reached him, leaning down and shaking his shoulders.  
  
Eyes snapping open, the thief sat up so fast he nearly hit her on the head, one knife out at the ready, obviously half-expecting to be attacked. An instant later, his temporary panic was broken by a severe coughing fit as he choked up some seawater.  
  
"You okay?" The Fairy asked, hovering by nervously. "I was worried that none of you would make it...."  
  
"Stop pretending to care!" Angela snapped, generously whacking the thief on the back, and enjoying this legal form of violence far too much for her own good. "We're not fine yet! What happened anyway?!"  
  
"I'm assuming we washed up on the shore of a beach after the ship capsized," Duran replied.  
  
No kidding.  
  
"Is everyone alright?" Hawk finally coughed out, obviously awake and recovered from his coughing fit.  
  
"Define 'alright'. Where are we, anyway?"  
  
"Bucca Island," he nonchalently replied.  
  
"What? How do you know that?!"  
  
The thief just pointed. "By that volcano right over there."  
  
"VOLCANO?!" Angela shrieked. "Will it erupt?"  
  
The Ranger shrugged. "Who knows? It was supposed to erupt about three weeks ago, but still hasn't. Overdue I guess."  
  
"Doesn't anybody ELSE think that it's cause for concern that we're washed up on a probably uninhabited island with no means of getting off it?!"  
  
"I do!" Duran announced, as though he were a child answering a teacher's question in class.  
  
"Thank you, Duran, do you have a solution for this problem?"  
  
"......No."  
  
"Brilliant."  
  
"We don't know this island is uninhabited," The Fairy berated. "Get up and search! Surely there must be a primitive village or something. I thought I saw some smoke earlier."  
  
"And did it occur to you that it might be from the VOLCANO?" Angela hissed.  
  
".....No." Like Fairy, like Fairy-carrier.  
  
"I rest my case. We're doomed!" She mightn't have minded her fate were she stranded on this island with Duran alone..... but she had no intention of dying without dragging Koren along with her! Or dying without ever actually receving a kiss from the handsome Knight. Or..... Why did the Goddess conspire to end her life or make it hell every twenty minutes?! Why?!  
  
"Hm?" Hawk sounded surprised.  
  
"What is it?" she asked, hoping that maybe he'd had an uncanny revelation regarding a convenient shipping route. Or anything. Why couldn't the Elementals teach her to fly?! Surely Jinn....  
  
"Thought I just saw a giant turtle out there."  
  
So much for her hopes of rescue. "Just how much seawater did you swallow? I can't believe it. He's already seeing mirages!"  
  
Even Duran was starting to look upset. "After everything we faced, a volcano will be the death of us?"  
  
"Then at least let's find a better place to die," Hawk cheerfully suggested, standing and brushing the sand off his clothes. "Where did you say you saw smoke, Fairy?"  
  
"Follow me!" the small deity ordered, enthusiastically leading the way.  
  
That was always a sign that things were going to go wrong awfully quickly. Not that they could get much worse.  
  
The jungle was not as peaceful as they hoped, and the muggy air didn't help Duran's apparent waves of nausea from swallowing a little too much seawater surfacing - three times they had to stop so he could go into the bushes and throw up, and each time he came back followed by a cohort of pink rabite- like creatures that were decidedly more agile and persistent that their widespread cousins. 'Silktails' they were called, according to the Fairy, forever providing them with useless tidbits of information.  
  
As they dispatched the most recent lot while Duran tried to catch his breath, Angela finished them off once again with a powerful beam of magical energy through her staff.  
  
"That's three times I've seen you use that, Angie," The Fairy observed, for some reason deciding to try and be nice. "What's it called?"  
  
"Beats me. I really need to think up a catchy name for that," Angela mused. "Special Magical Beam Ray of Destruction? No.... Staff of Bright Death? No...."  
  
"Nothing will ever sound cooler than Flying Swallow Toss," Hawk pronounced.  
  
"What about Star Attack?" Duran suggested. Suddenly she understood the unimaginative naming behind the Three-Step-Cut. But.... it was Duran.  
  
"What a brilliant idea, Duran! Star Attack it is!" She gushed, batting her eyelashes at him, hoping his recent bouts of jealousy - and dizziness from his vomiting - might mean he'd take the bait.  
  
Again, she was wrong. Duran just smiled. "You're welcome, Princess."  
  
"I think I see the village the Fairy was talking about through the trees there." The Ranger pointed, somehow managing to pick out what looked like a structure and glimpse of movement through the thick undergrowth.  
  
"I can't believe she was right AGAIN," the Princess muttered under her breath. "Who would live on this island? Especially when it's about to blow?" Regardless, they somewhat haggardly made their way towards the village.  
  
Almost as soon as they were within clear sight of the village, they were approached by a man, vaguely resembeling an eggplant, floating on an ornate cushion. "Shamen....," Angela realised. Why hadn't she sensed them earlier?  
  
"Greetings, visitors. May I ask what brings you here?" the Shaman politely asked.  
  
"A ship haunted by ghosts," Hawk replied casually.  
  
"And the tides that washed us up on the shore," Duran added.  
  
Figuring that if she couldn't beat them, she may as well join them, Angela pointed to the Fairy, still hovering at the head of the group. "And that."  
  
Oddly enough, this seemed to satisify the Shaman, who gave what appeard to be an all-clear signal to his fellow villagers, who immediately levitated over and began to crowd them. "Would you like to buy some armour?"  
  
"How about some items? We have herbs of all varieties!"  
  
"Don't listen! These are top-quality imported goods! Our items are guaranteed!"  
  
"Stay a night at our inn? It's rustic and low-priced!"  
  
"Merchants... they're everywhere!" Angela held a hand to her head in dismay, overwhelmed.  
  
"Business must be hard on a largely unpopulated volcanic island," Hawk mused.  
  
"I still wouldn't think that SHAMEN of all people would moonlight as merchants! I would think their codes of honour to be mutually exclusive!"  
  
"Excuse me, sir!" Duran called over the din to the Shamen who had first addressed them. "This volcano on this island is going to erupt soon, is it not? Can you tell me if there's anyway off this island?"  
  
The Shaman, much to their surprise, nodded, the merchants temporarily giving way to what appeared to be their leader. "You can ask the guardian spirit of this island, Booskaboo, to help you. He lives in the caves to the east of here. But the path is blocked by landslides dislodged by the recent earthquakes."  
  
"We ought to still be able to get in," Angela assured them, confident that Gnome could handle such a small problem. Booskaboo. If she wasn't desperate at this point in time, she'd probably be laughing at any guardian that was so ridiculously named.  
  
"If you intend to go to Booskaboo, you should rest first," the Shaman advised them. "The caves are rife with monsters, even with the danger of the volcano. And you do not look well from you ordeal in the ocean. You may rest safely within the walls of this village tonight if you so wish."  
  
"But... isn't that volcano going to blow up really soon?" the Princess fretted.  
  
"Whilst that is imminent, there is still enough time."  
  
Reluctantly, they each nodded their agreement. Satisfied, the lead Shaman left and they were once again harrassed by the merchants. After negotiating a surprisingly cheap night's rest at the inn, which turned out to be some straw beds under a sort of tent, they escaped to set up a small campfire to dry their clothes by the outer edge of the village, the merchants giving them a temporary respite. The sun began to set, turning the sky blood-red. It probably would have been much prettier had that big hulking ugly volcano not been sitting there smoking, a constant reminder of imminent doom. At least they had a way off the island now - they weren't going to die just yet. That left attention for more important matters.  
  
Like Duran. The Knight was gazing into the sunset, more-or-less ignoring Angela again. The Delvar was beginning to get more than annoyed. Even her subtle flirting with Hawk hadn't given hardcore results - she'd done little more than turn his eye thus far, and whilst she admitted she was making progress, it was taking an embarrassingly long time. She was going to have to go to more drastic measures if this kept up. And she'd already thought she'd been pushing the boundaries of 'drastic' as it was.....  
  
As for the thief.... Angela turned to look for him, and was once again confronted only by emptiness. That was the problem with thieves, you could never find them when you wanted to, he was always off somewhere.... rangering.... hiding... wandering.... and, well, thieving. It had only become worse ever since Hawk had performed his first class change, if he became a Wanderer or a Rogue she'd never find him! Why was he hiding, anyway? She turned around again in frustration, and came face-to-face with a serious-looking Hawk.  
  
"AHHHHHHH!"  
  
Duran looked over. "The Fairy wants to know if you mind keeping it down? She's says she's trying to plan something." He resumed his silent brooding, obviously giving some serious thought to how to rid the world of Koren for the first time in a few days.  
  
Angela was about to give the tiny deity a piece of her mind, but realised suddenly that the Ranger she had previously been looking for was standing there looking at her questioningly. "Where did you come from, Hawk? Stop scaring me like that!"  
  
Hawk just shrugged, then held up the hide of a silktail as if it were proof of his innocence, obviously at last conditioned to her constant accusations of stealing and the subsequent cane-bashings. "Don't you remember? I said I was going hunting, since who knows what these crazy Shamen eat for food. Sorry if I frightened you." He walked past her over to where he'd left the smouldering fire, setting up the carcass on a spit before preparing to add more firewood he'd 'acquired' from the villagers.  
  
Angela grinned. If simple flirting wasn't going to get the brooding swordsman's attention, then she'd just have to be more forward. Give him something to REALLY get jealous over.  
  
"Oooooh Haaaawk," she cooed, running up behind him and throwing her arms around his shoulders. To her surprise, he didn't even flinch, and neither did Duran. She frowned for a moment, then began massaging Hawk's shoulders. That got a reaction. He tensed beneath her, and for a moment she forgot her true purpose when she discovered how stiff his muscles were. Was he stressed? 'Of course he's stressed, Angela', she told herself witheringly. 'How many days ago was it that we fought Bigieu? You have the sensitivity of a brick!' Getting back on track, she whispered breathily in his ear, "You've been working soooo hard, why don't you just let me do that for you?" Leaning forward, making sure the Ranger could get a good long look at her cleavage, she used a small amount of wind magic to fan the fire and make it leap to life once again. Within moments a much more merry little blaze was going beneath the silktail.  
  
Just as suddenly, she realised that Hawk had slipped out of her hold and was sitting on the other side of the fire, turning the spit idly. "Thanks, Angela." How did he do that? She'd been holding him, and he managed to move without her noticing until too late? For that matter, she'd expected him to at least develop a nosebleed with that generous look she'd given him, especially given that this was Hawk of all people, ladies' man wanna- be extraordinaire!- or so she'd thought to begin with. She was finding the thief to be like an onion with the many layers of personality she was encountering, making her wonder what the true face of their mysterious ally really was, or if she was ever going to find it.  
  
Eating roasted silktail for dinner though. Over a campfire. Goddess, she missed the luxuries of being a Princess! And that whole embarrassing affair hadn't done much more than raise an eyebrow from Duran. Who knew what the Fairy was thinking.  
  
Sighing and accepting at least temporary defeat, she sat down next to the fire, stretching out to enjoy as its warmth as the air began to grow cooler. It was starting to look like she was never going to get Duran's attention, much less kill Koren. Not that the two events were really that much linked.  
  
"Say Hawk...." the magician mused.  
  
"Yeah, Angie?"  
  
"Why DIDN'T you hop on that boat with Nikita and go back to Navarre? You could have avoided this whole mess we're in right now. I mean, lifting the curse aside, isn't leaving her in Bigieu's hold more dangerous than leaving her cursed?" She hadn't really had the chance to speak with him since Palo port, and it had been bothering her ever since.  
  
The thief sighed, laying back to look up at the darkening sky leisurely, keeping one hand rotating the spit. "It wasn't only that. If I went back to Navarre, I'd probably be put to death."  
  
That WASN'T what she was expecting to hear. "Put to death?! Why?"  
  
"Life's hard in the desert, Angie. Traitors are dealt with harshly. For killing a single fellow ninja, even under the circumstances, I couldn't hope more much less than life imprisonment. And given how many ninja I killed in Rolante and Palo alone, without even taking into account Eagle or any I caused during my escape, there's no way that they'd let me live."  
  
"But surely... with everything you've done.... And it was Bigieu...."  
  
Hawk shrugged. "Maybe. But would YOU be willing to take that chance and head back to Altena?"  
  
Probably not. Looked like she was stuck with him for a while, then.  
  
Duran stood, obviously finished with what had looked to be a long mental conversation with the Fairy; knowing the tiny deity all the in-depth details about being a Mana Knight and a hero of the world and all that. "We should probably go and get some sleep after dinner. Even if the Shamen think there's still plenty of time before the volcano blows, I'd still like to leave as soon as possible tomorrow."  
  
Nodding their agreement, they fell into a comfortable silence. Later, they even managed to get a decent night's sleep on the surprisingly comfortable straw beds.  
  
Of course, they couldn't ever be woken normally anymore. At the ungodly crack of dawn the next day, Angela was jerked away by a distinct shaking and rumbling. "What?!"  
  
"Earthquake!" Duran yelled, already tugging on his boots. "The volcano must be getting ready to blow!"  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
After a moment, though, the shaking abated. "It must have just been a pre- eruption quake," the Fairy decided, sounding relieved. "We still have some time."  
  
"I don't care! Let's leave NOW!" The Princess hissed.  
  
"Okay. Just wake up Hawk first," Duran suggested.  
  
Sure enough, the Ranger had slept through the entire thing. Amazing, she had found someone who hated early mornings even more than she did. Well, rectifying this sort of problem was what she was best at.  
  
"AIR BLAST!"  
  
Hawk was up and ready within moments. After picking himself out of the windblown rubble of what HAD been the inn. Lucky for them, the innkeeper was conveniently elsewhere.  
  
"Okay, let's go," Duran urged, rushing them from the village. At the exit, the same Shaman that had greeted them the day before was awaiting them.  
  
"I wish you luck and blessings on your journey," he said, bowing slightly.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, thanks for all your help," Angela dismissed.  
  
"What about you? When the volcano erupts, this village is surely finished." Duran was clearly concerned. The Fairy, sitting on the Knight's shoulder, bore a similar expression.  
  
The Shaman merely shook his head. "Whatever the Bird God wishes will be. If we are to survive, we will survive. This is our home, and our lot. We shall not run from fate."  
  
"Bird God?! We stayed in a village of HEATHENS!" The Fairy suddenly yelled in a violent outburst.  
  
"Shhhh," Angela shushed, plucking the Fairy from the Knight's shoulder and out of sight of the Shaman.  
  
"It's not too late to repent your ways and serve the Mana Goddess! It's the one true path!"  
  
"Shut up already! Besides, you were the one who led us to this village!"  
  
"That's very courageous of you," Duran commended. The Shaman just bowed his head.  
  
"We're going now!" Angela ordered, concerned by the look of glowing admiration and nobility shining in the Knight's eyes and anxious to get away before he decided to stay with the Shamen to the end to share in their heroism, as from what little experience she had with Forcenan Knights it was apparently a very Knightly thing to do. As if reading her mind, the thief tugged on his friends arm, and they made their way back into the jungle and throngs of silktails, waving a brief goodbye. It slightly saddened her that yet another village would probably be wiped out in another couple of days, but at least this was an act of nature and not of some kingdom, and besides, escaping herself was more important.  
  
The caves were surprsingly easy to find - there was even a path leading there that they had somehow overlooked earlier, which did make for less encounters with annoying Silktails. The big boulders blocking the entrance the caves was even easier to find.  
  
"Well, I suppose this is my job." The Delvar sauntered forward, flexing her fingers, and with less effort than she expected, called forth Gnome.  
  
"Hiya! What can I for you guys?" the energetic Elemental asked, hopping from foot to foot. She could never get used to it - especially after just meeting Shade who at least had SOME dignity.  
  
"Can you move this boulder?" Angela asked, pointing at the huge thing.  
  
"Yes I can." The Elemental sat there, staring at her, still hopping from foot to foot.  
  
Long silence.  
  
"Well?"  
  
"I can move the boulder."  
  
Grinding her teeth, the Delvar shouted, "MOVE THE BOULDER!"  
  
"Okay!" It wasn't any problem for Gnome, when he finally got around to it and stopped being such a smart-ass. This must be where the Fairy got it from....  
  
However, Gnome had barely disappeared when the ground rocked violently beneath their feet once again. "AAAAHH! Not again! I thought we had lots more time!"  
  
"Gnome! We shouldn't have used Gnome's power!" The Fairy suddenly screeched, clinging onto Duran like a lifeline, even though theoretically she ought to be able to fly and avoid the whole thing. "Using Gnome set off the volcano! Don't use him again or it'll erupt right now!"  
  
So suddenly their day or two to get through the cave and off the island to safety had just been reduced to hours because they used Gnome to move a boulder? It was true. Mana was having some serious issues.  
  
"What are we waiting for, then? Get inside!" Angela yelled, leading the way herself as the current quake began to abate. As soon as she entered, she was batting away more crazy bats and zombies with her cane. Duran and Hawk followed, and they cleared a path through that cave, wasting no time to the next one, even doing their best to sneak past undetected to cut down on battle-time. Strangely enough, these caverns weren't quite so dark, even with the Fairy seeking refuge inside Duran's head - they seemed to be lit with an eerie red glow that none of them wanted to imagine the source of, given that they were inside a volcano.  
  
"Does anyone know where we're going?" Angela asked, as they followed the somewhat-pathway through the caves further downward. "I mean, I know I kind of didn't pay attention in class, but isn't it generally a better idea to not go DOWN in a volcano? We're only going to get closer to the lava."  
  
Duran shrugged, obviously having great faith in the Shamen. "Booskaboo must be around here SOMEWHERE."  
  
No sooner had they said that, than they appeared to arrive at a dead end. Emerging into the next cave, they were all surprised to see, instead of lava, dark seawater beneath them.  
  
Exasperated, the Delvar sank to her knees. "This is the end of the line. Where's this Booskaboo?"  
  
"Booskaboo nor any other creature will not be able to help you now!" A God- like voice echoed through the cavern.  
  
"That voice.... the Mana Goddess?" Duran wondered.  
  
"I love these acoustics," the voice murmured a moment later. "I must tell Bieigu about this."  
  
"Wait, that's not the Mana Goddess! That's Jagan! I hear you're the one who kidnapped Riesz's brother! And you've been impersonating the Mana Goddess as well!" Duran accused.  
  
Recognition fully set in as the cloaked man turned his eerie crimson gaze upon them. "What are you doing here?" Hawk demanded, moving into a threatening position.  
  
"I have come to kill you. Is that not obvious? Tell me, have I scared you yet, infidels?" the vampiric creature cackled melodramatically.  
  
Angela was finding their foe a little less scary each time they came across him. "We don't have time for this! Get out of our way! This is not the place to fight you!" Plus, there was still the notion that this was a powerful adversary, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to take him on just yet.  
  
"You will fight me, infidels, because that is what you are supposed to do!" Jagan hissed, clearly upset at the deviation from the script. "Bigieu said so! Prepare yourselves!" He flung out his cape.  
  
They needed a way out of this situation, now.  
  
"Any ideas, Princess?" Duran prompted urgently.  
  
"Um.... um... EARTHQUAKE, EARTHQUAKE!"  
  
Jagan wasn't impressed. "There is no earthquake."  
  
Well, not yet. "Oh, Gnome?"  
  
The Elemental of Earth appeared on cue, did a dance, and then disappeared. Suddenly, the entire cavern began shaking violently, and a rumble filled their ears.  
  
The vampire-wanna-be suddenly seemed to realise that his own life was in jeopardy now. "No! I must flee into the darkness! Whoosh!" Jagan disappeared in his now-customary puff of smoke. Leaving them inside a volcano that was about to explode.  
  
"What were you thinking, Angela!" The Fairy berated, appearing apparently for the sole purpose of scolding the Princess. "I told you not to use Gnome!"  
  
"It was the only choice I had!"  
  
"Get in the water!" Hawk ordered, pushing Duran over and motioning for her to come as well. They jumped in, gasping as the cold splash caught them by surprise. "It's our only chance!"  
  
The earthquake felt as though it was going to shake the entire cavern apart; as it was pieces of the ceiling were shaking loose and falling into the water like deadly cannon balls. This was it, she supposed. Goodbye, cruel world....  
  
Wait; was that a giant turtle?  
  
_____________________  
  
Cat food. Tada! Please review. Cat food. 


	26. It's All About the Crown

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Also in the warning - this chapter is really bad, really short, and really flat. Sorry, I tried, I really did. But there just wasn't enough coffee to go around. (Looks for someone to blame) Um... YOU! I blame YOU, muses, for the crappiness of this chapter!  
  
Author's note: Again I find myself with a wheelbarrow full of apologies! Given how long it's taken me to get this chapter out - another pathetic three-week effort on my part - I had intended on giving you guys something spectacular in compensation, but truthfully, I HATE THIS CHAPTER! I hate it with a passion. Hopefully you won't hate it as much as I do, but I felt as though I should apologise for the lack of funny, length, plot, and in general flat-as-a-pancake-ness and lack of progress contained with. Next chapter will be better I hope, but again, will be probably be late, as I recently received the wonderful news that my landlord is putting up my rent and I'm being forced to move (again. This is twice in six months.) Thus, I'm kind of busy house-hunting and packing and stuff and might be for a while, but I'll try to keep them coming. And I will have my revenge. I am sending a package of termites to my landlord's house right now. If I can't have a home, neither will he! BWA HA HA HAH! P.S. I hate this chapter.  
  
Response to Reviewers! (You guys are the only reason I get up in the morning these days.):  
  
Ff.net Surfer: Shamen is plural for Shaman. (So difficult to please you people!) I think you'll be sorely disappointed, sorry.  
  
Lady Stor: (New reviewer alert! Woohoo!) Evil Gate is coming.. Eventually. I am somewhat of a Procrastinator. Actually, it's Gorva, thanks for being the fourth person to point that out to me (slinks away trying to look naïve.) Well, Angela's flirting is kind of the POINT in this fic.. I think... ah hell, thanks for the review!  
  
Wingnut: Oh. Well, my mistake (how disappointing.) I challege thee, Crazy Evil It! Chronos? Hey, Chronos, somone out there actually loves you! See, I wasn't lying! As always, thanks for your reviews, they're like a mini-fic in themselves...  
  
Serenity-Wheeler: I have no sea water, but I have coffee! And termites. And cat food. Would you like some? NOOOO! IT IS TOO EARLY FOR THE GALAXY TO END! Have some sugar, and save the universe (and my hometown's destitute sugar cane farms.)  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: Silly dance! Silly dance! (Does a silly dance.) Thanks for the review.  
  
Truewind: YAY, at long last I'm ahead! (Sighs). You people are so difficult to please... but again I must agree with you! If that's true, you'll HATE this chapter nearly as much as I. So sorry about the gender confusion, how embarrassing (;P). Well, thanks for the review, excuse me whilst I go into a deep meditative trance and ponder this amazing revelation.  
  
Oxi-Nu: Yes. Yes she should. Let's make her into rabite cake. Glad you like Jagan's lines, I put so much effort into those ones! (Cries tears of gratitude). Your review always brings me much happines.  
  
Cookie Pixie: Hmmm, yes, in the interest of avoiding the emergence of flamers, we'll just not mention R-E-L-I-G-I-O-N. Real sparrows. That would be kind of funky. (Squawk!) Nope, doesn't work. Thanks for your review!  
  
^_^: Booskaboo doesn't really get any screen time, though perhaps more than Kevin (coughs inconspicuously.) A while before the second class change, don't be getting excited yet. Thanx a bunch!  
  
White-Chocolate: (Dances to meow-mix song). Ahh, who am I kidding, I can't dance. I think your reviews went to that same quasi-white-space- internet-dimension graveyard where all the unsent E-Mail goes to and all the spam messages come from. Thank you for your review, made me laugh. Ha ha. See, I laughed! Meow.  
  
Slash The Ironman: Thanks. Yes. Cat food.  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: Yeah, I have been slack, haven't I? And since you are so easily amused by dots on screen: ............... YAY! Thanks for the review.  
  
Wings of Lead: Oh dear, not only am I repetitive, but now I'm also becoming transparent! The horror! Still haven't used Evil Gate, next chapter almost definitely! (What are you talking about? Forget about those other promises, I had my fingers crossed, I swear!) Cheers.  
  
Avion: (New reviewer! Let's have a parade!) I've seen a little Inuyasha, and I suppsoe you're right. Maybe Duran was supposed to be smart, but, uh... he isn't. Oh well. 208 PAGES? THIS IS 208 PAGES?! WOW! That's kinda cool. when did I sleep? Thanks a bunch! Hope you keep reading and reviewing!  
  
Dargon: (Two parades! Yippee!) If this story (and Truewind's) is inspiring, that is el mucho compliment. Please don't enter my and Truewind's race. I couldn't take the added stress..  
  
WaterDragonerS: Oh, what a pity. Poor Sammy - Kevin gets so little screen time. And don't you worry, I'm going to University just so I can get a job and Squaresoft and remake this game.. THEN conquer the world. Yesssss... excellent.. Food! Actual food! This is grand, much better than the off- milk I've been drinking. I thank you from the bottom of my empty stomach. (For the review, too.)  
  
WolfOfDarkness: Thank you! Uh. yes, thank you!  
  
Well, that's it from me, again sorry for this chapter and just. sorry. Wish me luck in finding a place I can actually afford. And in destroying my landlord's house. And heck, at this point I'm taking well wishes for taking over the world, too. Or you could just review. That's good too. Thanks guys!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 26 - It's All About The Crown  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
On a beach outside Forcena, three Mana heroes waved a giant turtle goodbye. "See you, Booskaboo! Thanks a lot!" Duran called, waving frantically as the odd, goggled, giant turtle returned to its watery home.  
  
The Princess of Altena merely shook her head in disbelief. "Giant turtles. That can swim fast. I thought turtles were supposed to be slow, but that didn't even take more than a day! Not quite as comfortable as a ship, though."  
  
Hawk was busy wringing out his ponytail. "That was no excuse to push me off!"  
  
"Silence, peasant!"  
  
"Will you punish me in private if I'm not?"  
  
'Angela - 3, Hawk - 57,' the Fairy snickered inside her head, having termporarily left the sanctuary of Duran's upon discovering the Knight was not an adept swimmer.  
  
'Since when were you keeping score? How dare you take his side when he says such dirty things!'  
  
'You did earn it.'  
  
Deciding to ignore the little deity, giving her one final warning to return to Duran's skull before it was too late, Angela stretched lazily. "Well, we have escaped the cluthes of death once again! What now?"  
  
"Well, this is a beach just outside the gates to Castle Forcena, and King Richard did say to come and see him after getting Jinn's help," Duran suggested hesitantly.  
  
The Delvar merely shrugged. "I suppose we don't know what to do next anyhow. Fine, let's go see what the old man has to say."  
  
"Old man?! He's a great ruler and hero, the leader of Forcena!" the Knight defended.  
  
"Yes, and he's OLD. Come on, Duran, this is your hometown, lead the way!" The Princess, not bothering to wait, began leading the way herself until Duran finally sprung into action himself.  
  
Forcena itself was looking no different to their previous visit, though the general mood in the town was actually darker - odd, given that it had been comparatively rosy prior to that, which had been just after the attempted invasion. Perhaps Mana truly was in dire straits, and this sensation was beginning to be felt in Forcena.  
  
Duran led the way through into the castle courtyard and then the corridors, guards even stepping aside and bowing for them, though Angela did feel she got some glares - at times like this her affiliation with Altena was obviously unfortunate, having single-handedly saved the city or not. She did think it was odd, though, that they were able to walk through Forcena palace and right into the throne room without so much as an interruption - clearly, King Richard must have had a lot of spare time on his hands, no one could get in to see her mother, Queen Valda, without being put up for appointment on a three-week waiting list first. Even Angela had to book a month in advance for dinner with her.  
  
"Ah, Duran!" King Richard beamed as he recognised them walking through the throne room, hurriedly waving away a retainer. "And Angela of Altena and Hawk of Navarre as well, I see. I'm glad to see you are well." Was it her imagination, or did the King look nervous when he glanced at her? The old man had better not be a pervert, she steamed. King of Forcena or not, he was WAY too old to appreciate her! "I trust you have found Jinn?"  
  
"Yes, your highness," the Knight responded, bowing respectfully. "Though the Wind Mana Stone's energy has been released. We think this may be the true objectives of some of the recent illegal activities certain groups have been participating in." Angela shuffled her feet nervously - certain groups meaning Altena? Maybe THIS was why Duran was still so stiff towards her. She thought he was over that already, but maybe.....  
  
'Don't think too hard, you might hurt yourself,' the Fairy advised.  
  
'Given I'm the only one in this sorry little group with a proper education, if I don't think who will?!'  
  
'You're a snob!'  
  
'Look who's talking! 'Heathens'? 'Rotten Thief'?'  
  
King Richard seemed deep in thought, oblivious to any such hidden distractions. "This may be true. Most of the activity has been centered around the locations of the Mana Stones as of late. Very well, then, you should proceed on to the other Mana Stones and gain the assistance of their Elementals to retrieve the Mana Sword before it's too late. If the Mana Stones are indeed in peril, you must attempt to reach them before their energy is released and the God-Beasts break free."  
  
"Yeah yeah, I've heard this story before," Angela hurried, feeling that her position as royalty probably gave only her the right to show such lack of disrespect in front of such a powerful monarch - and there was little chance Duran would ever question his beloved King Richard, after all. She briefly elbowed Hawk in the stomach, 'subtly' reminding him to stop casing the throne room furnishings. "Why can't you just send out some of your own troops to protect the stones? We're only three people here!"  
  
The King nodded sagely, much like all Kings did. Angela stared, fascinated. How did his crown always stay on? No matter how vehement his head movements, the thing didn't budge. This could be invaluable information for her one day. "This would be true, except that you have already procured Jinn's, Wisp's, and Gnome's power."  
  
"Shade's, too," Hawk interjected absently.  
  
Still nodding, and crown still not slipping, he continued, "And given that, you have grown much more powerful than any of my troops. Your chances of success are much greater, as you'll likely be heading into hostile territory from now on that few others could successfully navigate." What, and the territory they'd been on until now had been FRIENDLY? If this man wasn't King, he'd be tasing the business end of a Holy Ball, just for being so stupid! Mostly because his crown, obviously part of his skull, probably would protect him from the wrath of her cane. "If you have truly been chosen as the Mana Knight, Duran, and these are your allies, then you may be the only one able to reach the Mana Stones and stop the world from ending as we know it."  
  
"No pressure," the Ranger muttered.  
  
Duran, though, was positively glowing with righteousness. "I will do my best, your Highness. Where should we proceed to next? We do not know the location of the rest of the Mana Stones."  
  
"The Water Mana Stone should be your next target, as it is in Altena and is under the most direct threat," he advised. "Undine will be there. It ought to be in the northern Snowfields. The Princess should be able to find it."  
  
Angela was pale. Return to Altena, still labelled a traitor? Forget walking into the lion's den, that was practically walking into its mouth! And whilst magically she could feel herself growing much more powerful, surely she wasn't yet ready to challenge Koren! This was suicide!  
  
Outwardly, she smiled. "Piece of cake!" Yes, if rabites ate cake. Rabite cake. Yum yum.  
  
Obviously satified, the King resumed. "After that, the next Mana Stone in peril will be the Fire Mana Stone in Flame Canyon, in the desert. I doubt the Navarre Thieve's Guild will have reached it yet, since it is guarded by many ferocious monsters at the moment - likely Salamando's efforts-" It was Hawk's turn to scowl. "-but after you have Undine's power, it shouldn't be much of a problem."  
  
"And the others?" Duran questioned, doing his very best to absorb this overload of information.  
  
"In the Beast Kingdom, in the Moonlight Forest, is the Moon Mana Stone, guarded by Luna. It's to the southeast of here." Grand, they'd get to fight Beastmen again. Her Kingdom for some good news for a change! And to know the secret of the crown-that-doesn't-move. If she was bartering her entire Kingdom on it, it had better be a good deal. "As for the Wood Mana Stone, I am uncertain but I do know it's in Forest of Wonder. As far as I know, you can't reach it from land. South to it, though, is the Lamp Flower Forest, where the elves dwell. If you find Dior city, the Fairy King-"  
  
'Many, many creepy connotations that I choose not to dwell on,' Angela thought to herself.  
  
'Angela! You're getting worse than Hawk with your dirty mind!' the Fairy scolded.  
  
'You've never entered his skull once! How would you know how dirty his mind is?'  
  
'I bet cleaning fairies would faint at the sight of him!'  
  
Suffering too many strangely related sort-of-puns that may or may not have been attempted jokes on the Fairy's part, Angela tried returning her attention to the probably important information King Richard was giving them.  
  
"-will know how to get you there. There you shall find Dryad, and your quest will nearly be done," King Richard concluded his lengthy speech at long last.  
  
"Ah, how will we get to these places?" Hawk asked, stretching and lacing his hands behind his head. "Last I checked, some of these are't along any regular shipping routes."  
  
"Oh yes," the monarch blinked, reaching under his throne and pulling out a small treasure chest. Even Duran raised an eyebrow there - seemed like an odd place to keep one's treasure, but made a little too much sense. Hawk, on the other hand, was looking entirely too thoughtful, likely filing this information away for future use. "Have you ever heard of the giant turtle, Booskaboo?"  
  
"Have we ever! That creepy thing saved our lives!" Angela exclaimed.  
  
"Oh, so you were actually ON Bucca Island when it erupted? Most fascinating, we must exchange stories sometime." Lonely old man. "In that case, this needs little explanation. If you go to the coast and play this flute, Booskaboo will be able to hear you and will come."  
  
Accepting the flute the King was holding out, Angela blinked, momentarily confused. "Wherever he is? That's a turtle with good hearing."  
  
"I think it may send out a frequency that we can't hear," the King suggested.  
  
"Ah. So where exactly did you get this flute, anyway?" the Delvar asked suspiciously.  
  
Suddenly turning red, and puffing himself up as though about to make an important statement, the moarch muttered. "To be honest, it was a gift from your mother, Valda, for-"  
  
"Gee, thanks a bunch! Well, we should probably get on our way, then!" Angela hurriedly interrupted, not likely Hawk's and the Fairy's barely controlled sniggers, and definitely NOT wanting to know where the rest of that sentence was going.  
  
Looking somewhat crushed and lost, the King merely nodded, waving his hand to give them his blessing. "Well, good luck then, I suppose.... though Princess Angela, you should really know...."  
  
"Thanks again! But we'd better be off to save the world, right!" she cut in, moving as if to leave. Duran, though, dropped to one knee once again.  
  
"One more thing, my liege?" Duran begged.  
  
"Yes, Duran?"  
  
".........Could you repeat that please sir?"  
  
"................"  
  
Duran spent so much time asking the King to repeat all the locations of the Mana Stones that Hawk and Angela finally left and secured a place to stay for the night at the inn, tired after their great run through Rolante, the Ghost Ship, then Bucca Island. It had to be their first uninterrupted night's sleep in weeks, save for ten minutes somewhere near midnight when Hawk vanished somewhere, merely claiming the next morning that it was a 'toilet break'. By now, the Ranger had no credibility, but not even Duran really wanted to know where the thief went in the middle of the night anymore, though the security around the castle seemed much tighter when they were walking to the beach the next morning.  
  
"So, how do you think we work this thing?" Duran asked, holding up the flute and inspecting it, much in the same manner he had the Chibikko hammer.  
  
The Fairy, sensing another journey across water, wafted over to the Princess's head. "Please don't get any ideas, Princess. If you hit someone with it, it might break."  
  
"Of course I won't! It's simple! It's a flute, play it!"  
  
Duran attempted to blow in it, but no sound came out. "I was never much good at musical instruments."  
  
"Let me try!" Angela suggested, taking it and trying a similar thing, with similar results. Ah hell, it was worth the indignation - it was practically an indirect kiss with Duran!  
  
........Goddess, she must be getting desperate. She'd never come across a guy this tough to crack.  
  
Hawk attempted it after her, with similar results. However, they couldn't argue over it much longer, as moments later, Booskaboo crashed onto the beach, one flipper covering where one would think ears on a turtle would be.  
  
Looking at the tool in perplexion, Angela finally surmised, "King Richard said it worked on a different frequency that we can't hear. I guess we must have called Booskaboo three times."  
  
"How would we ever know if it was broken?" Duran wondered.  
  
Shrugging, the Princess patted the creature affectionately on the head - as ugly and strange-looking the creature was, it had saved their life, and was apparently going to be their most convenient form of transportation for a while, so it couldn't hurt being nice. Climbing aboard, the Ranger and Knight followed suite. "To Altena!" Duran ordered, posing heroically. Of course, the fact that they were perched atop a giant turtle did ruin much of the effect. Bookskaboo grunted something that was most likely a complaint in turtle language, then kicked off the beach, wading out into deeper waters.  
  
Well, now it seemed like they were going back to Altena now after all, whether she was ready for it or not.  
  
Pfff. She wasn't the sweet little Princess she was a month ago! Altena had better get ready for HER!  
  
'I don't think you were ever sweet,' the Fairy murmured tiredly.  
  
_____________________  
  
Okay. Glad THAT'S over with. Keep in mind I can't be promising regular updates these days, but you're used to it, right? I won't stop, though. Please review! 


	27. The Icy Homeland of the Icy Princess

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. For details on my plans of world destruction, see.. Wait, you're from where? F-B.. I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong web address.  
  
Author's note: Well, I'm all moved now, my new place is just as much a dump as the old one, in fact, it's almost an exact replica now that I've spread all of my anime paraphernlia around, but it's a cheaper dump so it's all good. Plus, my internet is once again hooked up and 'working', but you know, I'm not even going to try and promise more regular updates because every time I do the penguins seem to decide to spite me by introducing more chaos into my life. (I'm sane. Really.) So here's this chapter! To be honest, I'm struggling with this fic at the moment, which might be the other reason updates have been sluggish, but no more excuses today! (The koala ate my brain). Hope you enjoy.  
  
Response to Reviewers! (Did you guys realise this fic is now over 100,000 words long? I must have no life.):  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: How dare you steal my coffee! No! Please! (What the hell are Pixie Stix? Or is that a stupid question? Um.. I like Pocky?) This fic is unique? Well, gee, thanks, but it's news to me, especially since I'm kind of repeating the same jokes over and over again.. (Cat food). Yeah, I had off milk, I was kind of hungry and it was all I had left until the next day so I risked it and suffered for my stupidity. Oh well.  
  
WaterDragonerS: Rabite cake. so hungry. Oh, glad to see Sammy has seen the light and now I don't have to feel so guilty about giving him no screen time! Thanks for the review!  
  
Terra: Wow, that's high praise, thanks! I'm not sure if the characters have so much charcter so much as they're just hugely exaggerated, but thanks all the same. Ooops, I'm stealing good ideas, must be my Hawk fetish coming through. No, don't throw away your stories, we must flood the SD3 section! Flood it! Thanks for the sympathy; yes it would be easier to move into a dorm, I used to live in a dorm for a while last year, but. Never again.  
  
Undine: New review! Hello! Thanks for all of your reviews, that was sure nice of you. I can't really have Angela killing Hawk with her spell, especially since most of the time he dodges them and when she does use it against him instead of a monster she wouldn't use all of her power. As people might be able to tell, I'm not exactly a stickler for details in this, otherwise the fic would be even longer than it already is! (If that's at all humanly possible). And thanks for pointing out the shoal thing, I am aware of that but I must have been off with the fairies when I was writing it.  
  
Bishiehuggler: That there will. Thanks a bunch!  
  
Lj7: That's just the mystery. Some of the other reviewers had some cool ideas.  
  
^_^: Thanks. I've moved A LOT in the past two years, so I'm getting pretty efficient at it, it only takes me a couple of days to pack up and unpack. Princess nein, nein, nein.. Well, you would have had this chapter a whole week earlier, but since YOU said that I can't update on MONDAYS anymore you don't get it until now! Nyar ha ha! (P.S. Just kidding.)  
  
Wings of Lead: I too hope that this is up to my previous standards, but like I said, I've been struggling a bit recently. Hmmm... Hawk flirting with Valda, huh? This has potential...  
  
Dargon: (Ah, yes. entry fee.) Oh, okay, if you've just started I guess you can enter the race (I don't mind now that I'm at long last in front). Thanks for the review!  
  
Truewind: Yay! Now I don't have to keep changing chapters to make sure that they're different! I did get the same idea as you, but you did it much differently, I just thought I'd leave it largely up to reader interpretation. (i.e. I'm so lazy.) Thanks as always for your review. P.S. Truewind, Dargon wants to enter our race. What's your thoughts on this? Pssst, let's make an entry fee and split it!  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: Those are some very good possibilites for the crown. Ewwww. Thanks as always for the review, very good!  
  
Lady Storm: (Wait. could you possibly be Lady Stor? Ooops, FF-net is cutting off letters again.. MY ARM, MY ARM! It's tasted blood..) If this fic is a walkthrough, you'll probably wind up getting lost, since I cut a lot of corners and go off on weird tangents, but I'm happy if you like it! Thanks for the review!  
  
Tom Gyllham: New reviewer alert! Jeez, thanks for the big compliments! Means a lot, really does. I'll keep writing if you guys keep reviewing.  
  
Wolf Of Darkness: Yeah, I have been going a little overboard on the dialogue latly, that's just me being lazy. again.. Thanks for the review!  
  
ThatcrazyaZnchick: New reviewer, yay! (Wait, you sound familiar.) Mmmm, I have secretly developed a taste for mosquitos. Yum yum. Cool story about NY - ah, your review was great fun to read. Wait. DECAF?!! You're EVIL! EVIL!!!! No cat food for you! The subbed CCS movies 1 and 2 were so good. Though the first one was my favourite. After that completely irrelevant note, thank for your review!  
  
Ff.net surfer: My thoughts exactly. Thanks for the review.  
  
Well, that's it from me for the time being, I suppose I'd better leave you guys to the chapter while I go do some of this 'work' stuff. It's supposed to be important or something.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 27 - The Icy Homeland of the Icy Princess  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Booskaboo dropped them off on an ice shelf within eyesight of the actual beginning of the shore, leaving the trio to delicately pick their way through the ice to safety on the beaches of Elrand. Well, perhaps not altogether delicately, as Duran stuck his foot through the ice a few times, much in the same manner he had at the ghost ship, and had to be dragged back to safety by either Hawk or Angela; not that the Princess really minded, but the process, as brief as it was, was somewhat tiring. As soon as they were on solid ground, they didn't move for a time, though Hawk was hugging himself in a desperate attempt to keep warm.  
  
"It's freezing!" he complained, pulling on every spare piece of clothing he carried from somewhere and throwing it on, most of which was desert attire in some way or another so didn't make much difference. "I can't believe people can LIVE in this!"  
  
"It's not that cold! This is nice weather for Altena!" As if to accentuate the Princess's point, several snowflakes drifted past, accompanied seconds later by a freezing gale.  
  
Duran, being the prepared Knight he was, slipped on a bulky hand-knit cardigan that looked as though it had been made by his Aunt Stella under the influence of alcohol, over his regular armour, which looked a bit silly, but..... homely, she labelled. Yes, a look she could get used to, that face went with everything! Duran, the Delvar was convinced, could wear lime green and orange and still melt any girl into a puddle of love. "Aren't you at all cold, Princess?"  
  
Angela snorted, tapping the end of her cane on the ground in a gesture of impatience. "Nonsense. Why would I be cold?"  
  
"I find it hard to believe you don't get cold in that outfit in the tropics," Hawk deadpanned.  
  
"Leave my wardrobe out of this!"  
  
"Whatever! I'm still freezing!" the Ranger complained, shivering.  
  
"Carlie cold too!"  
  
"That's nice, Carlie." Wait a minute. "CARLIE! HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!"  
  
The pink-clad claiming-to-be-fifteen-year-old child had mysteriously appeared by their side and was hopping from foot to foot, either as a result of the intake of too much sugar or the effort to stay warm. "Funny Fat Man send Carlie here! Scary Lady say she send Carlie on big important quest! Now Carlie freezing!"  
  
Hawk paused from his shivers to shake his head in disbelief. "Didn't think Riesz had it in her."  
  
"Say, Carlie," Duran said thoughtfully, bending down to look the young girl in the eye, "You look somewhat different."  
  
"Friend Duran notice Carlie much prettier now?!" The high priest's granddaughter gave the Knight a bone-crushing hug - Duran's face turned a disturbing shade of blue as he attempted to draw breath. "Carlie an Enchantress now! Scary Lady take Carlie and Beastie Man to big shiny stone and now Carlie can do more boom boom!"  
  
Even Duran became pale at that prospect. What had Riesz been thinking? Make the tyke more powerful, more dangerous? Come to think of it, maybe that was why Carlie was here now and Riesz was not.  
  
'Quite frankly, I'm amazed the kid had the power to class change,' The Fairy commented from inside Angela's head once again.  
  
While Angela mentally thanked the Goddess that Carlie was not psychic, at least, not yet, she replied, 'The amount she beats us up I'm not surprised! We're on dry land, now, get back into Duran's head!' Somewhat sulkily, the Fairy did as ordered, floating from the Delvar's head back to the unsuspecting Knight's.  
  
Carlie was still occupied in hugging Duran, so Angela sighed, having at least momentarily resigned herself to their horrid fate of having the annoying tag-a-along for a while yet. And Carlie, too. She stretched, taking a moment to appraise the craggy ice-covered slopes of Altena, the humble low-set buildings puffing smoke of Elrand, and in the distance even further the dim silhouette of castle Altena, poking just above the treetops. All of it was covered in a sparkling blanket of snow.  
  
To be honest with herself, it was strangely good to be at home, despite the looming sense of dread settling over her. She was still in exile, brandished a traitor for some reason she still wasn't entirely sure of, and chances were most of the Altenan army would quite cheerily lop off her head given half the chance, former crown Princess or not. But to feel the cool breeze in her hair, the crunch of snow under her shoes - dear Goddess she was turning into a sap.  
  
Hawk still refused to appreciate the scenery in the same manner she did. "Angie, could you keep me warm?"  
  
Nobody interrupted her moments of nostalgia and got away with it, for the purpose of flirting or not. "MAYBE THIS WILL YOU KEEP YOU WARM! EVIL GATE!"  
  
A black portal, crackling with dark energy, appeared beneath the thief, who leapt away with agility surprising even for him. The currents still sucked at him, turning the thief bug-eyed as he fought the pull, ripping loose a sleeve and one or two throwing daggers in the process. They vanished into the thin spell, a moment later Angela cutting it off, seeing as Carlie had started crying, apparently spooked by the big black hole appearing in the middle of nowhere trying to eat Pervert Man. Shade's power.... The Delvar could feel her skin tingling with electricity. Her spell had nearly ensnared even the elusive Hawk! - who at the moment was attempting to put as much distance between himself and the frightening magician as humanly possible - and she hadn't even scratched the tip of the iceberg, no pun intended, of what she could accomplish with Shade's power. It hadn't even been a powerful Evil Gate! It had been completely base level!  
  
"Uh, Princess, the Fairy suggests maybe you shouldn't use that on anything unless you really want it to die," Duran advised.  
  
"Your point?" Angela asked, brushing her hair carefully back into place.  
  
"Um... maybe not use it on Hawk?"  
  
"I second that!" A tiny voice called in the distance.  
  
"WAAAAAAAH! SLUTTY GIRL SCARY!"  
  
"There there, Carlie, the Princess won't hurt you."  
  
"Much," she added.  
  
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"  
  
Hawk had finally crawled back, trying to be as inconspicious as possible, though looking very much annoyed at his lack of sleeve and state of freezing not improving. "No offense, Angie, but that didn't do much to warm me up at all."  
  
"Unh, I don't care, let's just get into Elrand away from that.... thing," she muttered, trudging through the snow away from the still-crying Carlie. Dear Goddess, there was no sound more irritating than a wailing child. Duran was good with kids, let him deal with the fifteen-year-old. She was going to compose a strongly-worded letter to this 'Heath' as soon as she got the chance. She'd write one to the High Priest in Wendel, but she was fairly certain he was senile. Mental note; senility equals wisdom in the grand world of Mana.  
  
"Angie," Hawk said, running to catch up with her, though being sure to keep out of cane reach and alert should she pull another spell out for no reason, "Are you sure it's safe for you to go into Elrand? I mean, you're the Princess, right? Won't someone recognise you?"  
  
So the thief did have a brain. After his last couple of comments she was starting to worry that any prior displays of intelligence had just been an act. "When I first fled Altena, the people in Elrand found me out in the snowfields and took me in, and nobody seemed to realise I was the Princess then, so we'll be fine. My mother didn't want to put a Princess of Altena who couldn't use magic on show. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm grateful, now."  
  
Hawk just nodded affirmatively, wincing as the distant wail of Carlie grew increasingly louder as Duran attempted to follow them, the young girl in tow. She'd kept low proile in Elrand before, but with this kid on her heels, it might be harder than she'd thought. Even the Fairy floated out of Duran's head to escape the noise, landing on Hawk's shoulder for a free ride. "Even so, we'd better not stay in Elrand any longer than necessary. We'll just get some warmer clothes and supplies then go."  
  
"You need warmer clothes? Thought you said this was nice weather. Not as nice as you, of course." Whether he was flirting or sucking up to avoid any further spell-castings was anyone's guess, so she merely ignored the comment and continued.  
  
"Of course this is nice weather! But they don't call it the Below-Freezing Snowfields for nothing! I nearly died out there, and I don't intend on having that happen again!" Why WAS she going back out there again? She hadn't thought she was at all suicidal, but maybe it was time to start tracking down someone to talk to, just in case. "Cold exposure of that magnitude for any length of time will kill even the fittest Altenan!"  
  
"Exposure is what you're best at, though, isn't it?" the Fairy muttered.  
  
Gnat. "You'd better disappear back into Duran's head again, unless you want to freak out the whole town."  
  
"But..... Carlie.... so loud.... I can't believe Duran's ears aren't bleeding!" she complained, though comlying and wafting back to where Duran was slowly catching up. For all their sakes, at least, Carlie was calming down.  
  
Well, in her own special way. "SLUTTY GIRL PAY FOR SCARING CARLIE LIKE THAT!"  
  
"AAAAAHHH! Get her away from me! EVIL-"  
  
"Wait, Princess, don't use that spell on her!" Duran yelled, running up trying to grab an obviously suicidal Carlie out of harm's way.  
  
"Hey, here's a store. What do you say we get some warmer clothes?" Hawk observed, somehow resiliently ignoring the chaos unfurling about him.  
  
"My Aunt's cardigan will do me just fine. Besides, we don't have much money left, do we?" Duran replied, wincing at the resounding 'clang!' echoing off his nice new shield from Carlie's morningstar as she attempted to get through him to Angela. He was obviously hoping that Carlie would get tired and calm down sooner than his shield would break.  
  
The thief shrugged, sauntering into the store. Angela hurried after, anxious to get away from Carlie as usual. Why, oh why did she follow them everywhere they went? She had only just begun to feel even slightly safe! The tyke was stalking them, that was the only explanation. "You're not going to steal from some poor half-destitute Elrand shopkeeper are you? You can do what you want in other countries, but as crown Princess I have to object!"  
  
"Of course not. A thief only ever steals from locations he already knows! I've never been to Altena before. Have to get stuff the old-fashioned way," the Ranger muttered. They pushed open the door and hurried inside, leaving Carlie yelling outside. She sounded like she was starting to wind down a little, Duran's potential lifespan re-increasing with every decibal drop.  
  
"We need some warmer clothes," he implored the shopkeeper. Despite the early morning of day, the shopkeeper was there by his post, sitting in his chair waiting for customers. Merchants must not ever sleep. Without a word, he disappeared into the back room, coming back with some warmer long gloves and leggings for the Princess, and some warmer pants, a scarf, and a tunic for Hawk.  
  
"This is it?" he asked incredulously.  
  
"That's all we have in your sizes. That'll be five hundred gold pieces."  
  
Grumbling, Hawk shoved over the money, grabbing the purchases. So much for Duran thinking they were broke. "At least give us a changing room so we can put these on."  
  
"Since when did you have any modesty? I don't mind," Angela jibed, poking the thief in the side, before remembering Duran wasn't with them. So why the hell was she flirting with him them?!  
  
Even Hawk seemed momentarily floored, but before her slip could come back to haunt her, the shopkeeper pointed to a small curtain, obviously the changing room. "Ah... I'll go first." She'd have to be more careful about when and where she indulged in her tactical displays of affection. Come to think of it, maybe trying to use Evil Gate on the Ranger wasn't such a crash hot idea - so much for all of her hard-earned credibility.  
  
Ten minutes later, they were fully dressed in their new attire, though Hawk still complained he was cold. Outside, Carlie was napping peacefully on Duran's back, obviously having tired herself out and now having to recharge before the next tantrum.  
  
"Where did you get the money for the extra clothes?" Duran wondered.  
  
Deciding to spare what was left of the Knight's innocence, Angela ignored the question. "You aren't going to carry her, are you? Just dump her at the inn. She'll just be dead weight!"  
  
"But she's just a kid, all alone in a foreign country," he insisted. On his back, Carlie sleepily mumbled something about not being a kid.  
  
"She won't survive the snowfields like she is! We're going to have to move quickly so that the cold doesn't get to us, and she'll slow us down with those short legs!" the Delvar argued. "You'd be doing her a favour!"  
  
The Knight's resolution was beginning to falter. "But she's all alone here...."  
  
"With that morningstar she'll be fine! And she class-changed, remember?"  
  
"I suppose.... But we don't have any money for a room for her at the inn."  
  
"No problem!" Hawk announced, handing over a small bag of gold, clearly happy to part with the treasure if it kept Carlie off their backs just a bit longer.  
  
Thanking the thief profusely for his uncharacteristic generosity, Duran toted Carlie off to the inn, reappearing several minutes later looking relieved. "She'll be fine for the time being. But I still think we should at least pick her up on our way back. There's no other way out of here."  
  
Waving him off, perhaps a tiny part of her brain hoping the shortly- attention-spanned Knight would forget the child by the end of this current pilgrimage, Angela began to lead the way out of the town into the Snowfields. "Well, let's get going, then! There's some wolves out there just WAITING to be fried!"  
  
"There are WOLVES here?" he asked worriedly.  
  
"What's the going rate for wolf pelts?" Hawk interjected, suddenly interested in the conversation.  
  
"Do you three MIND?!" The Fairy suddenly burst out, appearing from somewhere, likely hopping heads without being noticed. "We have a highly important mission here! Mana itself is being threatened!"  
  
"Blah blah blah," the Delvar hurried along, pushing aside a low-hanging branch, thoughtfully allowing it thwap back into Hawk's face. They emerged onto a plain of snow, fringed by frost-covered trees and boulders. A lone wolf seemed to be wandering aimlessly around the field, until looking up sharply and snarling at the sight of them. "Look, my first victim of the day! EVIL GATE!"  
  
Snarl was quickly transformed into yelp as the mammal found itself being sucked into a small well of darkness. Eventually, the Princess's spell won out, and the beast disappeared into the portal, moments later, as the spell disappated, reappearing as... well, in the name of good taste Angela attempted to think of a sunny field of flowers with a stream running through it instead.  
  
"FIRST victim of the day?" Hawk muttered under his breath.  
  
Even Duran looked disturbed, choosing not even to comment on his ally's obvious increase in strength and power. "Is that a path I see?"  
  
"Ah, that leads directly to the castle. Considering you're a Forcenan, I'm a traitor and Hawk's a thief, that might not be the best way to go. Follow me, I'll get us to the northern snowfields WITHOUT the mandatory cross- border inspections," she advised.  
  
Hawk was still more interested in shivering than talking politics. "It is so cold." Another blistery gale swept across the semi-barren landscape.  
  
"I think so too. Let's keep moving," Duran agreed, obviously the cold too much even for his normal machoism to withstand. Snow crunched loudly beneath his boots as he made his way to the next meadow, his two companions walking lightly across the top of the snow, or at least trying to. Another wolf came to intercept their path, but several deft strokes with his sword dispatched it with relative ease. Fortunately, in a climate so cold, the wildlife was fairly sparse, so they didn't come across anything in numbers too great to handle as they made their way through the snowfields.  
  
"Nice place you live in, Angie," the Ranger commented through chattering teeth after a time. "No wonder Altenans are so tough."  
  
"Idiot! Altena Castle City is much warmer than this! Mother uses her magic to keep the place warm!"  
  
"A waste of Mana," the Fairy tutted, apparently not bothered by the cold. Being a magical being clearly had its advantages. Pompuous little.....  
  
Glaring at the tiny deity, Angela hissed, "I thought insects were supposed to die off in the winter."  
  
"She must be a very powerful magician, then," Duran mused. "Then again, Koren was considerably powerful and he supposedly serves her.... This way, Princess?"  
  
A nod in response and they plunged into the next clear section of path, each step colder than the last. "She is powerful, I guess...." And beautiful, and smart, and damn perfect. As certain as she was that she had the beauty part covered, how by the Goddess was she EVER supposed to take over from the famous Valda, Queen of Reason? If she was lucky, Jose would rule and let her be the figurehead. Royalty was a pain sometimes. She'd have to ask Riesz how she dealt with it. Or seeing how Riesz dealt with most things, maybe not. "She's a good ruler, too, I suppose, usually....."  
  
"Good rulers don't usually go around invading other respectable Kingdoms for no reason, though, do they," the Fairy huffed, obviously still annoyed at the time the escapades in both Forcena and Rolante had cost. She didn't know why - after all, emissaries of the Goddess were SUPPOSED to endorse justice and everything else, right? The Fairy had a point, though, all of this had thrown her life completely out of the tree. Forget out of the tree, she was out of the entire freaking forest!  
  
It all had started when that crazy moody magician Koren had first come to the court. And most of the time, didn't it always? The answer to this question was usually 'yes' (except for those rare occasions when it was 'no'). If only that handsome smooth-talking gloomy bastard hadn't shown up, twenty times more powerful than her, then....  
  
"Princess?" Duran asked, seeing as she seemed to be taking an unusually long time to answer, and was developing a dangerously stormy expression that usually resulted in the excessive application of large amounts of Holy Balls.  
  
"Oh, look, we ought to nearly be there. Just past those bushes there I think," she announced hurriedly. Just wait until Koren met Evil Gate. Or Carlie. Come to think of it, the two weren't that different.... Evil Gate and Carlie, that is.  
  
"Wait a minute," Hawk interrupted, the frigidity suddenly apparently forgotten.  
  
"What?" Duran asked, laying a hand tentatively on the hilt of his sword.  
  
"Thought I saw a flash of something metal up ahead. Black, maybe."  
  
Utter silence. No one moved. There was a crunch of snow, somewhere ahead and vaguely off to the right.  
  
"That wasn't us, was it?" Duran asked.  
  
Hawk shook his head grimly. "We might have been beaten here already."  
  
"For Goddess's sake, you two! Sitting here hiding isn't going to do anything about it!" Angela fumed, patience snapped, raising her cane and storming out into the meadow.  
  
The Fairy hurriedly disappeared back into Duran's head, even as he started after the Delvar. "Princess, wait!"  
  
"Oh man, she's gonna get us killed!" Hawk cursed, running after him.  
  
The flash of black and crunch of snow apparently was a familiar figure after all.  
  
"The Darkshine Knight. Just to complete my day," she sighed.  
  
Turning around, the dark knight seemed to regard them curiously for a moment, shifting into a more threatening position seeing their battle stance.  
  
"Hi!" Angela called out sarcastically. "Wonderful weather, isn't it!"  
  
"Being back in your own country must have given you a death wish," Hawk murmured under his breath, hands tightening around his kodachi slightly.  
  
"I'd have to have a death wish to even come back here in the first place," she retorted, but held her cane a little more closley none-the-less. Okay, it wasn't one of her brightest maneuovres, running out into the open so boldly then attempting to anger a potentially powerful opponent; consider it practice for when she became the new Queen of Reason. Everyone made mistakes every now and again in the process of learning, right?  
  
"Leave here, now," a deep voice ordered from within the ebony plating, echoing eerily off the insides of the helmet, giving it a strangely metallic quality. Was this fiend even a man, or was it a machine merely encased within a seemingly flawless coat of armour?  
  
"I don't think so," Duran replied, taking a single step forward. Was the Knight nuts? Did he really think they could take this man? Something in the Delvar's gut told her that he was too poweful, and not to be toyed with.  
  
"Duran...." the mysterious stranger began.  
  
All three of them started at that. "How do you know my name?!" Duran demanded, taking another threatening step forward.  
  
In an unexpected move, the Darkshine Knight lowered his sword, clanking it noisily against his armour. "Your choice, then."  
  
Bursting from underneath the heavily packed snow, three vaguely familiar chrome machines appeared, clicking and whirring dangerously. Grand. These again. At least they weren't trapped on a bridge this time.  
  
With no further adieu, the Darkshine Knight began to walk away, either clearly confident of the inventions' victory, or just plain lazy and stupid. "Hey you, stop! I order you to stop- ack!" Duran yelled, a ringing 'clang' sounding as he brought his shield around just in time to protect himself from the slightly maniacal swings of the Altenan war machines.  
  
"Stop loafing around!" Angela ordered in her best 'Future Ruler' voice she'd learnt off of Riesz. "These things ought to be easy kill this time! KeeeeYA!" Her crystal cane smashed down decisively on the head of one of the contraptions. She stepped back in satisfaction to admire her work. What, that tiny dent?  
  
"Angie?" Hawk called out nervously.  
  
"Ah, upgrades!"  
  
The Ranger muttered several words in what must have been a native desert language, which she wasn't so sure she wanted to know the meaning of anyway.  
  
Duran seemed to be holding his own, hacking away determinedly and making some small headway. Hawk seemed to mostly be dodging around in some mad dance, looking for some tiny weakness in the armoured chrome machines to exploit. And as for Angela.....  
  
There wasn't any point wasting a whole bunch of Holy Balls or other magic spells on this thing, she surmised - they might have handled the old versions better, but if a crystal cane did less damage than a wooden one....  
  
A sudden move from her opponent jerked her into action. "Okay, eenie meenie miny moe - Shade!" she decided. Whirling around, she gathered as much dark energy she could, to the point where she was worried she might even lose control of it. "DARK FORCE!"  
  
The very air surrounding them seemed to darken as crackling magical energy formed into black spars of dark energy, proceeding to pound and impale the Altenan contraption relentlessly. The Delvar's violet hair danced in the wind as the air forced out by the spell washed over them. Metal shrieked and twisted under the barrage, until with a final pop and hiss, her opponent at last collapsed into a collection of mangled parts and shards of blackened chrome plating.  
  
How about that, it actually worked! Wait, better pretend she'd planned it all along. Deathly silence. Angela rearranged her hair nonchalently.  
  
Obviously, the other two scratched and banged up machines clearly had some sort of self-preservation wiring, because they proceeded to cease their attack and flee the scene. Though the one Duran had been working on seemed to jerk and limp sporadically due to some damaged wiring, falling into the snow several times along the way.  
  
The Delvar was in the process of brushing soot off her new white leggings. "When those things break apart they make such a mess." Looking up, she suddenly noticed Duran and Hawk staring at her, ediging away slowly. "What?"  
  
"Aha ahaha hahah.... I promise I will never flirt with you again," Hawk mumbled, smiling earnestly.  
  
"Awwww, but Hawkie," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice, grabbing him by his scarf and pulling him closer. "Don't you like me?"  
  
Duran coughed loudly, shuffling his feet nervously. So much for lost credibility, that was a step in the right direction if she ever saw one. "Ah, shouldn't we go find Undine now? Princess? Please?"  
  
"This kind of behaviour is making her learn, deep inside her subconscious, that powerful magic and killing things leads to fear and respect, you know," the Fairy accused, appearing in the aftermath of the battle to announce her opinion as usual. "I bet that's just what happened to cause such corruption in Altena! All villains start out this way!"  
  
"Well, she did kind of win the battle for us, though," the Knight pointed out.  
  
Obviously the Fairy had nothing to say to that. "Well, I guess it IS good that you've mastered Shade's power so quickly...."  
  
"Darn right! Koren will regret ever crossing me!" she said, mimicking Duran's favourite pose, standing with her hands on her hips. No, she wasn't getting a reaction from either Duran or Hawk. Okay, lean forward a little more, a lot more.... both were blushing, there you go, perfect stance.  
  
"Forget I said anything," the Fairy blanched, floating towards the entrance of a cave they had at first overlooked. "Hurry it up, I sense Mana energy around here. It's impolite to keep Elementals waiting, you know."  
  
"Okay, okay." Angela grabbed Hawk by the scarf again, dragging him along towards the cave. "Don't get your wings in a knot."  
  
Duran, on the other hand, looked back, to where he'd seen the black Knight vanish earlier. "How did.... how DID he know my name?"  
  
"Oi Duran!"  
  
"Oh, sorry. Coming, Princess."  
  
Ducking through the low entrance, an eerie sense of deja vu struck Angela as she felt the familiar sensation of Mana energy flow over her. As their eyes adjusted to the slightly darker environment, a cave with walls encrusted with sparkling ice crystals shimmered to life, the centrepoint being dominated by the looming figure of a glowing Mana Stone.  
  
Somehow, though, stretching deeper into her still-infant magical senses, Angela sensed that the glow was somehow erratic and tainted. Mere moments later, the distraught cry of the Fairy confirmed her suspicions. "The Mana Stone's energy has already been released! We're too late again!"  
  
"Darn it, the Darkshine Knight must have beaten us to it." Duran's fist slammed into the wall in an uncharacteristic release of frustration.  
  
"We'll just have to get to the next one faster, then," Hawk consoled, laying a hand supportively on the Knight's shoulder to calm him. "You won't fail in your quest with us around, okay Duran?"  
  
A shine in the center of the room moments later revealed Undine, apparently blessed with good timing. "Fairy? Have you truly come from the Mana Holyland, sent by the Mana Goddess? Are times that desperate?"  
  
"Undine," the Fairy confirmed, nodding sadly. The Elemental of Water and Ice was perhaps the most beautiful they had seen thus far, in the guise of a deep blue ornamented mermaid with flowing watery hair, carrying an intricate wand in her right hand, ethereally floating in front of them. She seemed far more whimsical than most of the other Elementals they had encountered, much in the same manner Shade had. Perhaps merely the first couple were a poor show of face. "What happened here?"  
  
The Elemental seemed saddened as she turned to look at the Mana Stone. "A Knight in black and a Wizard in red came and unleashed the stone's energy. I tried to stop them, but my power alone was not quite enough to stand up to the both of them. They entered the sanctum, and the rest you can see. Please tell the Goddess I am so sorry that I have failed her."  
  
"You can make it up to her, by helping us get to the Mana Holyland and save the other Mana Stones!" Duran urged, stepping forward, obviously determined to rise after another fall.  
  
The Elemental turned to look at the Fairy, who nodded. "I would be honoured to assist you in your journey, then, and restore Mana to what it should be. I give all of you my strength. And Princess Angela, native to these my favourite lands of Altena, that is your name isn't it? I sense within you the potential for great power. I shall bestow upon you my magic, should you accept it."  
  
Bowing graciously, gratified that at last that one meeting with an Elemental was going to contain some sort of etiquette, she replied, "Of course." Undine delicately touched the top of her head with her wand. More magical energy poured into the Princess, and even she could recognise the room for more. Had she always had this potential, or was this entirely the Elementals' doing?  
  
Done, Undine floated back to the centre of the room, glancing mournefully at the Mana Stone. "I wish you luck and speed on your quest. I believe Salamando's Mana Stone of Fire is in the most threat at the moment, you had best proceed there next." With that word of advice, the Elemental evaporated from sight, but stayed with them in mind.  
  
"Seems King Richard's directions were correct, then," Duran confirmed, rubbing his hands together to keep them warm, the icy air that had surrounded Undine obviously getting to him.  
  
"Maybe NOW I can try that water spell!" Angela announced gleefully, turning to face Hawk, who was looking suddenly panicked. Attempting to reproduce that first spell that she had tried right after she had gained her magical ability, she called out, "ICE SMASH!"  
  
"Ack!" Hawk leapt for cover, the sturdy ice crystals of the cavern providing him some protection from the flying shards of ice.  
  
"Princess, if you don't mind," the Knight interrupted politely, "It's already very cold in here."  
  
"Okay, Duran, if you say so," she said sweetly, ceasing her attack on the spooked thief. She'd probably even put up with Carlie if Duran asked her with that look on his face. Hug her mother, kiss Koren and dance with a Beastman, even.  
  
"Duran! Would it be wrong for me to say that I love you?" Hawk called from the other side of the cavern, still shielding himself behind a boulder and shaking. She liked to think from fear, but it was probably from the cold.  
  
"Yes," Angela snapped. Wait, that sounded possessive. "I mean... Argh, let's get out of this hole." Despite enjoying her time back in Altena, the Delvar was not wanting to push her luck, all the new magic tricks or not.  
  
Caught up in the moment, Duran raised his fist to the sky heroically. "Onward to Navarre!"  
  
Now it was Hawk's turn to look sour. "Oh goody."  
  
_____________________  
  
TERMITES! There you go, hope you liked it, sorry if you didn't, please review! I love you all! (But not as much as coffee.) Hey, we're not too far away from 300 reviews! I ought to give out a prize to the 300th reviewer. Any suggestions? 


	28. To the Frying Pan

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.  
  
Author's note: I'm late AGAIN! I find it difficult to believe, but I'm actually getting WORSE with updates, not better. I'm probably going to start losing reviewers over it. My usual apologies, I have the list of excuses as long as my arm but I'm sure none of you are interested in that, so on with the story. Oh, and as for the 300 reviews competition, I think that the fourth person to review this chapter will be the lucky winner! Not that I got any suggestions for what a good prize would be, thanks anyway. I wound up just deciding that the 300th reviewer will get either a fan art or a fanfic (they can choose) of their choice of topic. It'll probably be a couple of weeks coming; I'll E-Mail them with the details. Thanks to everyone for sticking with this thus far! And as for this chapter.. Well, it's not up to par, but I've kept you guys waiting long enough. Don't hate it or me too much, please! Thanks to all the reviewers as usual. I adore all of you.  
  
Response to said Reviewers!:  
  
Enzonator: (Bweep! New reviewer alert! Welcome!) How very observant of you! Hawk fetish? Me? (Tries to look innocent. Fails miserably.) Really, by now the votes would have made Hawk a Nightblade but it's obviously too late to change. Sorry everyone. Though I personally thought all of those scenarios were pretty cool. Thanks for your review; I hope you keep reading!  
  
WaterDragonerS: (Laughs). Not quite. I don't know what spurred this recent bout of voting, but you'll be happy that you're getting Magus. Go ANCIENT!  
  
Toxic2(poison: (Bweep). Thanks! For the review 2.  
  
Dargon: TERMITES! (Cries - someone understands.) You're probably still more efficient at updating than I. Thanks for the review!  
  
Duran the Gladiator: Thanks a bunch! This chapter's a little flat, but hopefully next chapter will make up for it - more Navarre, for one! As for the competition - I don't remember exactly how it started, but since Truewind and I are kind of at similar points in the game in terms of writing the story I think we started racing. Whee! I'm kind of slightly ahead! (It only took me eight months to do it.) Tada!  
  
Cookie Pixie: I seem to be struggling with the wit lately, at least, new wit. Thanks as always for your review, it's always great to hear from you.  
  
Wingnut: O.o? Poor, poor Chronos (I'm so sorry, Chronos!) Aww, but I LIKE the Chrono Trigger section. I was going to post something there (eventually.) Oh well, have fun. Thanks for the review! (It's like a mini-fic in the reviews page!)  
  
Wings of Lead: (Laughs) Thanks very much, it's reviews like that that make writing this fic worth it! Sadly, this chapter stoops again, but I hope you enjoy it anyhow. More Hawk action next chapter! Thanks for the ideas, most excellent.. I have plans for another fic with a Hawk/Riesz pairing if you like that, that is, if I ever get the chance to write it and post it. (Now I'm an adjective. That IS cool.) Thanks again for a great review!  
  
Tom Gyllhamn: Of course I can write bad chapters! Here's one right here! Carlie. marry Duran.. (head spinning, but I think I could make that work..) Thanks heaps for the review, hope you keep reading!  
  
TheGenkiGirl: I gathered, lucky for me you have a distinct review style! (O.o?) Wow, so many reviews.. Thanks very much! Actually, I thought the chapters became LESS funny, but hey, if you're happy I'm happy. I like Angela and Hawk mood swings too (just in case everyone hasn't already guessed.) 273rd review. (Goes back to count up number of spells. wait a minute). Guess you'll just have to try for 300. Though I think my counter's broken, it doesn't seem to match everyone else's guesses. (Kicks it - it works on vending machines!) WHEE! Go RK! Yeah, come to think of it, you do keep mentioning new animes. Lucky that I've at least seen them all so it's not too confusing. And anything sounds better than Pink Typoon. The scary thing is, I think someone wrote a Harry Pooter fic called that. Think I'll go eat some cat food.  
  
DeezlJaw: (Bweep!) You must be psychic. I'm reporting you to the FBI. Thanks very much!  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: Hey, it's taking me forever to update, so you're doing okay. I'd make the prize hot coffee, except I'm too greedy. (Taps head thoughtfully.. But it's an idea. Don't you think they'd prefer some cat food or termites?) So very cold.. Stupid ten dollar heater can't even warm my feet, much less my entire flat.  
  
Wolf Of Darkness: Thanks! Your review is much appreciated!  
  
Undine: My termites will vanquish your carpenter bees! (Eeek! They can fly! Stay back!) Actually, you're right. See the next response for full explanation. Thanks for your review!  
  
Freeloader1: (Bweep!) Welcome. I too was disappointed that they never released SoM in Aus, but I just imported it and bankrupted myself as I tend to do. Hey, that means there's another Aussie in here! At last, someone who spells the way I do! They kinda released Ranma. well, some of it. For about two weeks. After reading your review on Hawk's short swords, I went back and re-checked my research and realised that I had somehow picked up on two completely contradicting sources and things got mixed up in my head and. well yeah. That research was out of date for another fic anyway, no wonder I mixed things up, my apologies to everyone, I doubt I'll go back and change it, but I'll at least have things right from here on in. And thanks for your review!  
  
Slash the Ironman: Thanks for your idea for a prize at the very least, it helped, it really did. And thanks for the review, too.  
  
Ff.net Surfer: What are you talking about? It's CARLIE! And as for that particular line, I did mean Evil Gate and Carlie. The structuring of the thought process was supposed to be the funny bit. 'Supposed to' is the key word in that sentence. Thanks for your review!  
  
Mig-31: Stance on Jessica to be revealed next chapter. Stay tuned. (With my recent record, probably for a couple of weeks.) Well, next chapter might be a little more serious come to think of it, but no promises. Thanks as always for a great review! If it weren't for you guys this fic would have died ages ago.  
  
Omega Weapon: (Bweep!) Long is right. (Need.sleep.. Want. life back.) Hope you keep reading and reviewing!  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: Explosions are fun. Just thought I'd say that. My personal philosophy is that there is no problem so large that it cannot be solved with the appropriate application of explosives.  
  
Bishiehuggler: Well, there was very little new spell stuff for a while so.. No, I haven't seen those pictures, do you know the site where they are? Sounds cool. Thanks for the review!  
  
Lady Storm: You were a little off the 300 mark, but we're definitely going past it this chapter! I originally thought Dark Force was a Magus thing too, but I checked up on it and apparently the Delvar gets it! Yes, Ff.net would be better with coffee. In fact, many things would be better if they were about coffee.  
  
Okay, response to reviews went a little longer than I intended, but it's a kind of longish chapter (okay, so it's pretty much the same length as all the others, so sue me, no wait, don't sue me, I had a disclaimer back in Chapter One) so here you go! I don't like this chapter much, but hopefully you'll like it more than me. Cheers! And lucky 300!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 28 - To the Frying Pan  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Their footsteps crunched loudly through the snow as they carefully retraced their steps back through the freezing snowfields. Admittedly, even Angela was starting to feel the bite of the cold now, though she imagined that now having Undine's power added to their growing collection softened the blow of it. Hawk was leading the group, obviously eager to get back to Elrand and off this giant block of ice. Even Duran looked to be excited to return to warmth of at least the inn, not even sparing a second look as they passed the remains of several of their conquests earlier that day.  
  
It wasn't until they were nearly back at Elrand, though, did the Princess of Altena get the biggest shock of her life.  
  
"What's that?" Duran asked, peering against the snow glare to a particularly sparkly patch of snow up ahead, interestingly right about where Angela had Evil Gated some poor defenceless.... well, maybe not so defenceless as unsuspecting.... wolf.  
  
"I can't tell. What do you think, Angie?" Hawk called back over her shoulder.  
  
Pushing forward, she heard a sudden series of 'eeeks' that sounded vaguely familiar. The Fairy floated from Duran's head.  
  
Scattered over the um.... remains...... of the once-wolf, were several bright, sparkling white, smaller but altogether too familiar-looking creatures. They were all frozen, staring like a rabite caught in the firelight, blinking and unsure of what to do, completely busted.  
  
"And these are?" Angela asked, feeling as though her head was about to go swimming.  
  
"Cleaning fairies," the tiny deity replied happily.  
  
"I don't believe it. They do exist." Angela promptly fainted. It was the Princess-like thing to do, after all. With any luck, Duran might catch her, too. Sweet sweet blackness overtook, and then was the sensation of a great deal of time passing in the blink of an eye.  
  
Thus it was some time later that Angela next opened her eyes, not entirely sure of where she was or what she was doing. Sleeping?  
  
Judging by the colour of the light seeping in through the curtains, and Hawk sleeping soundly in the chair next to her bed, it was early morning, just prior to sunrise, and judging from the interior of the building, they were still in Elrand, as well. Rolling her head to the side, she saw the outline of Duran's bulky form wrapped in blankets - a pom-pom was poking into her line of vision a little further on, which logically was attached to Carlie. What had happened?  
  
Obviously the Fairy was the only one up and about, joys joys. "Ah, so I see you're awake!" she taunted, floating over to hover just above the Delvar's face.  
  
"Oog, what happened?" she asked, feeling the remnants of a headache. Something... about sparkly lights, and many tiny white silent versions of the Fairy.....  
  
"You fainted, that's what happened! Probably from using all that magic! You used Evil Gate multiple times, not to mention Dark Force and Ice Smash, all relatively new spells in a short space of time! Learn to pace yourself better!" the tiny deity berated. "We can't have you fainting away in the middle of battle because you don't know your limits!"  
  
"Whatever," she dismissed with a yawn, stretching lazily, pausing as she stared at the sleeping Navarrian slumped in the chair next to her. "What's with this bozo?"  
  
Smirking, the Fairy circled her then Hawk. "He was so worried about you he sat up with you for a while. Isn't that nice?" The insect almost had stars in her eyes for a moment there.  
  
"Yeah, right. Probably just perving on me the whole time," she muttered.  
  
"You're so cold," her miniscule companion huffed.  
  
"Speaking of which, we should leave Altena while we can and get moving on to Navarre." It was going to be sad to leave her homeland once again, but quite frankly, the sooner she put a lot of distance between herself and her many would-be murderers, the better.  
  
Unfortunately, before she had the chance to wake up the sleeping Knight herself, Duran chose that moment to stir and roll over, blinking the sleep away from his eyes blearily. Moments later, he sat up, stretching. "Ah, feeling better Princess?"  
  
"Yeah," she replied somewhat sulkily, suddenly annoyed that he hadn't at least tried to wake her with a kiss when she had fainted earlier. This whole campaign with Duran was taking too long! How thick was this Knight's skull? Granted, she hadn't yet tried out the cane on it, but really! Even the Fairy, with her miniscule skull and accompanying pea-sized brain, found her to be overtly obvious. Fine, give him some MORE reasons to get jealous. As if she hadn't been throwing herself all over the place already.  
  
Hawk was still snoozing in the chair next to her, so she leaned over and breathed into his ear. "Wakey, wakey, Hawk."  
  
Well, Duran was blushing slightly at her close quarters to the thief and her pose, but apparently it had no effect on an unconscious Hawk. "Mmph. Go away Jessica."  
  
Jessica again? "Just who IS this Jessica to you anyway!" the Delvar screeched without warning, the Ranger's eyes promptly snapping open as he fell off his chair.  
  
"Ah, the sleeping beauty awakens!" Hawk praised, massaging the back of his neck to get out the crick, probably from sleeping in such an awkward position for the entire night. "You had us worried for a while, Angie, but the Fairy just said to let you sleep it off."  
  
"Well obviously..." Wait, the Fairy was right. Again, dammit. If the irritating gnat kept making a habit out of this, she may be forced to take some drastic measures involving her cane and a large application of Evil Gates.  
  
"Ah, um, let's get going then! We can eat breakfast on Booskaboo! No point staying here any longer than necessary, right?" Angela hurriedly continued, doing her best to avoid even acknowledging the floating light zooming around the room. For something that supposedly needed a head for a vessel because she was so weak, the tiny deity certainly seemed to have a lot of energy.  
  
Duran had obviously completely forgotten about their half-pint harasser still sleeping, quite cheerfully packing up his things and making his way to the door, Hawk following suite much more sleepily, though being sure to rug up plenty before braving the cold, cold outside once again. "I have to admit, I can't wait to leave this ice block."  
  
"Watch what you say, this ice block is my home!" Angela hissed, jabbing him in the ribs. She opened the door of their room to lead them into the lobby. It seemed unusually crowded out there today, a good thing they were just going to skip breakfast.  
  
Wait a minute, all of those people were wearing suspiciously familiar- looking uniforms.....  
  
The innkeeper's expression was that of one scared witless. That was the first clue something was up. Unfortunately, she wasn't given the time to process the other clues before one of the visitors whirled at their entry. "The rumours were true! It is the traitor! Princess Angela, you are hereby under arrest!"  
  
"AH! Run!" Angela shrieked, leaping back into the room.  
  
Duran, having just caught a glimpse of their impending doom as the Delvar leapt to safety, slamming the door shut behind her, seemed concerned. "Run where?"  
  
"She has a point, Angie," Hawk agreed.  
  
Oh, they were so dead.  
  
"Okay, okay. Well, there's only about half a dozen, we can fight that off, right?" Trying to convince herself, with renewed vigour the Delvar brandished her cane and kicked the door open again, ready to fight her way to freedom.... only to discover that six had in the meantime become twelve, and more were beginning to pile into the doorway.  
  
"Ack! Reinforcements! Excuse me," she said politely, shutting the door again and leaning against it.  
  
"Princess Angela! Please come with us quietly and we won't be forced to hurt you!"  
  
"Yeah, you won't hurt me, you'll just KILL me!" She yelled back. Did they really think she was that stupid? Somehow, she didn't want to know the answer to that question. To her companions, she said, "Ideas, anyone?" Of course, when referring to ideas, this usually meant just Hawk, Duran looking a bit lost at the situation.  
  
"I don't know," the Ranger replied. "Out the window maybe? They probably have the building surrounded but there'll be less of them."  
  
"Argh! I'm going to KILL Koren for this!" she cursed. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's get going!"  
  
She moved away from the door, to where Hawk was punching out the frost- encrusted window. It shuddered, and then blew open behind her. "Too late!" Duran unsheathed his sword, Hawk dropping back to the floor to help, drawing his own short swords.  
  
Altenan soldiers poured into the room, all pointing their respective canes at the party. It was a standoff. Well, not quite a standoff, given that they were outnumbered by about five to one. Their leader positioned herself in front of the Delvar. "Princess Angela, by order of ruler of Altena Valda, Queen of Reason, you are hereby charged with treason and are to be pleaced under arrest!"  
  
Things probably couldn't get much worse right now.  
  
Cue Carlie.  
  
In the midst of all of the excitement, even Angela had forgetten about their small stalker. Yawning, the pink-clad girl stretched and hopped off the bed, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Carlie have good nap." At length, she blinked. "Friend Duran? What happen while Carlie sleep?"  
  
Suddenly, one of the Altenan soldiers shrieked. "Lietenant! It's HER!"  
  
"What?! That's impossible!"  
  
"RETREAT!" Someone else called. Just as quickly as the soldiers had invaded, they fled, emptying the room with terrifying efficiency, leaving the trail of a stampede behind them.  
  
The three Mana heroes, Fairy, and stubborn tag-along were all that remained in the room. Carlie blinked her large blue eyes again and yawned. The silence stretched on for a good couple of minutes.  
  
"Maybe we should take advantage of this situation?" Hawk finally suggested.  
  
Nodding her affirmation, still not quite believing she might yet live another day, Angela reached down and yanked Carlie up by folds of her pink jumpsuit. "Hey! Put Carlie down!"  
  
"We're going to go for a piggy-back ride, okay, Carlie? Fun fun!" the Delvar gritted through her teeth, trying to sound as upbeat and sugary as possible.  
  
"Whee! Slutty Girl not so bad! Carry Carlie! Go fast!"  
  
Sighing, realising belatedly that this was the kind of thing Duran was good for, Angela hoisted the young girl up on to her shoulders and hot-footed it to the door, throwing two or three gold pieces to the still-petrified and now also puzzled innkeeper on the way. It didn't really compensate, but they were already broke. Once outside, the Altenan Knights, waiting to see if they might get another chance at their prey, immediately recoiled at the sight of Carlie perched atop their quarry's shoulders. Carlie apparently did have one good use as a human shield of sorts. The Delvar made a mental note of this as they hurried to the beach.  
  
Hawk and Duran were sure to stay close, as the Altenan Knights gave them, or rather Carlie, a wide berth. "Jeez, what tipped them off? Old boyfriend in town or something?" the Ranger asked, keeping a wary eye on their would-be captors.  
  
Whilst Angela mentally ran through a list of any bitter exes that may or may not have been in Elrand, for the first time ever the Knight stood up for the Princess. Well, kind of. "I think the chances are unlikely, given that we surely encountered most of them in Maia."  
  
Not wanting the conversation to proceed further than that, as soon as they reached the beach, Angela dumped her cargo on the ground. "Okay, Hawk, hurry up and use all of that hot air to do something useful like calling Booskaboo." To her surprise and relief, the thief did so even without the usual comments, while Carlie started cooing happily on the sand. Darn, she hadn't thought about it but this meant they'd have to drag the child with them. Maybe they should have just faced the wrath of the Altenan army instead.  
  
Booskaboo came crashing up on to the beach, sending out a spray of sand and sea foam most dramatically, making the young Enchantress shriek. The party of four hurriedly clambered aboard the giant goggled turtle - well, Carlie was mostly tugged aboard, not wanting to ride the scary big monsters, which was probably more afraid of her than the other way around.  
  
"Let's get out of here before they come after us again," Duran urged, looking nervously in the direction they had just fled.  
  
"Booskaboo! To Navarre! And step on it!" Angela ordered.  
  
"Why exactly does a turtle need goggles anyway?" Hawk wondered out loud.  
  
"Whee!" That was obviously Carlie.  
  
Soon, Altena was merely a frosty speck in the distance. Only then did any of them feel relieved enough to properly exhale.  
  
"At last! Breakfast!" Duran joyfully exclaimed, digging out what little rations they had carried with them. He set them out carefully on Booskaboo's shell so that they wouldn't be thrown off into the ocean, but with four people it was a much tighter squeeze on the shell. Realistically, Angela didn't mind this, but.....  
  
There was a splash somewhere behind them prompting the Knight to look over in her direction. "What was that?"  
  
"Must have been a seagull," the Delvar replied sweetly. "Oh, is that Royal Jam?!"  
  
Hawk was munching away somewhat contently on his candy, clearly having nothing to add to the discussion, and likely considering his own fate when they reached Navarre. Still, better him under death threat than her, Angela figured.  
  
The Knight was watching them eat their junk food somewhat dubiously, before returning to rummage through their rations. "Didn't either of you bring anything healthier?"  
  
"What's wrong with Royal Jam on chocolate?" Angela demanded.  
  
The Fairy emerged from the Knight's head for the sole purpose of gagging, that being done disappearing once again. In the meantime, Duran seemed to have at last located some sort of sandwich, and didn't reply, likely figuring it was probably safer to not to comment and continue to avoid the Princess's temper and cane for just a little longer. And who said that Duran wasn't smart? Wait, she did. Oh. Well.... damn this was good Royal Jam.  
  
So much of the trip to Navarre continued in peaceful munching silence, and they even managed to grab a quick nap to get rid of some of their accumulated sleep debt.  
  
Soon, the glare of the approaching desert continent was spotted, and they prepared for arrival. The Fairy at last re-emerged from Duran's head, clearly having to rest again after all of her earlier floating around and preaching and being generally annoying. Their miniature companion looked around at length. "We're nearly at Navarre. Let's hope we get there in time this time."  
  
All three made several non-committal replies, to which all the Fairy could only respond; "Wasn't there another person with us?"  
  
That received no response at all, as Booskaboo now crawled up onto the beach, letting off its passengers. It seemed to sit there for a moment, as if in expectation.  
  
"What?" Angela asked. "Thanks already!" Annoyed by its insistent presence, she threw a piece of candy at the turtle to shoo it away, which it caught in its mouth and swallowed. This seemed to sate the great beast, as it lumbered back into the ocean to do whatever it was that giant turtles did in their spare time.  
  
"Booskaboo is asking for payment now?" Duran wondered, trying to blink the vision away from his eyes. Apparently deciding that the problem required too much brain power to mull over, he shaded his face with a hand and surveyed the bleak arid scene before him. "THIS is Navarre? What a desolate place."  
  
"It's Navarre, all right," Hawk confirmed grimly. Any extra winter wear had long since been removed, and the thief had returned to his normal desert attire.  
  
"It's so hot," Angela panted, fanning herself with her hand. It was not a pleasant experience to have to convert from below freezing conditions to the beating sun of the desert. How did ANYTHING live in this?  
  
"It's a desert, what did you expect?" the Fairy snorted, floating around them. It appeared that magical beings had no such concerns over temperature or humidity. How very unfair.  
  
"I think I'm gonna die! We should have stopped somewhere more temperate in- between!" the Princess complained, tugging at the material of her dress that was clinging to her, making sure to be in full view of both Hawk and Duran, but again, neither seemed to notice, or were perhaps such practiced perverts they were very good at concealing it.  
  
"The Oasis Town Deen is just beyond here," Hawk informed them. "We can rest in the shade there before we take on the Desert of Scorching Heat."  
  
"It would be called that," the Delvar muttered.  
  
Duran, in the meantime, had shrugged off his shirt to contend with the heat. Suddenly, the heat was worth it. The Princess felt as though she might be about to faint for the second time in two days. The finely toned muscles, the rippling biceps - why was the world spinning in front of her eyes? Immediately she remembered just why she had been so patient with Duran's stubborn ignorance thus far. Without the clunky armour, he was.... majestic. That, she decided, was the only word that could possibly do this heavenly being justice!  
  
"You're staring, Angela," the Fairy whispered in her ear.  
  
"Shut up and let me enjoy," she hissed back under her breath, quiet enough for the others not to hear, though Hawk was smirking like he knew what she was saying anyway. The thief could probably lip read anyway, seeing as he seemed to know how to do everything else. Stupid thieves.  
  
"If you're all quite ready..." The Ranger took the lead, heading into the sand dunes.  
  
"Wait up, Hawk!" Duran called, hurrying after him, Angela choosing the rear position just for once. Nothing strategic or suspicious behind her decision. Nothing at all. She glared at the Fairy's raised eyebrow.  
  
After a good ten or so minutes of slogging through the heat, just as the Princess was beginning to become self-conscious of her hair possibly frizzing up in the heat, did Hawk halt and gesture grandly. "This," he announced, "Is Deen."  
  
Long silence. A desert tumbleweed rolled along the ground, coming to a stop near the Delvar's foot. She kicked it away absently.  
  
The town was nothing spectacular. In fact, it was well and truly on the other end of the spectrum. She had been to her fair share of small country towns recently, but Deen seemed so desolate and impoverished, encased in sandstone brick walls with buildings of clay, and no greenery to be seen other than a few half-dead palm trees. As a Princess, she was well aware of the fact that she was more accustomed to grandiose architecture and livery, but it was difficult to imagine ANYONE living in these conditions. Was this where Hawk had grown up? He'd never once mentioned having any family, she abruptly realised, so without that, maybe it wasn't so surprising that he had become a thief. How else would one survive in those conditions?  
  
"Um, it's nice?" Duran offered.  
  
Shrugging, Hawk started down the path heading towards the village gates. "We should get inside Deen before the sun sets and they lock down the town for the night." Only then did they notice that the burning sun was beginning to dip into the horizon - the trip here on Booskaboo had taken most of the day.  
  
As they entered the streets of Deen, it seemed at first like simply a sleepy sort of town, but with magician's instincts it started to seem more like a town that had settled down to die. From what snatches of conversation she heard, most people seemed to laze about, complaining about the thieves in the desert making it hard to travel and how empty the town was becoming. Many of the buildings seemed to be abandoned. Oasis Town Deen was well and truly on its way to becoming a ghost town.  
  
Making their way towards the only inn, Angela leaned over to talk to Hawk. "What's with this place?"  
  
"The oasis here is drying up," he replied. "And with Navarre's recent trends stopping travellers from coming here, the town is dying out. The spring was already beginning to dry up when I was last here, but it's looking like it's all gone, now."  
  
The Fairy was currently hiding in Angela's hair, so she could still talk without creating a public scene. "Sounds like a problem with Mana."  
  
"Possibly. People say that years ago Navarre used to be lush tropical forest. But I've never seen any trace of it. The Oasis was all that remained, and soon even that will be gone."  
  
Their conversation was cut abruptly short, however, as a burly man at their twice their height wearing a turban that was probably half that again stopped in front of them, narrowing his beady eyes at them at length. Duran tensed, hand inching towards the hilt of his sword. Finally, the stranger's gaze settled on Hawk, who didn't seem at all bothered by the situation. "You! It IS you!"  
  
"What is me?" Hawk questioned innocently.  
  
"Do you have some sort of problem?" Angela demanded, tapping her foot impatiently.  
  
Ignoring her, the stranger continued, "Because of YOU now I have to work all day just to afford everything! Sometimes even into the night! You desecrated my home! Police! Come arrest this thief!"  
  
"Deen doesn't even have a proper police force," Hawk scoffed. "Besides, it wouldn't hurt you to work a day or two in your life!"  
  
"Hawk, did you steal from this man?" Duran asked. Just when she thought he might have been redeeming himself....  
  
"I think that's a fairly safe assumption," Angela murmured.  
  
"Everyone! It's a thief from Navarre! Don't let him get away!" Now the stranger was beginning to get the townsfolk's attention at the mention of the hated Navarre.  
  
"Dear Goddess, is there NOBODY out for your head?" the Princess groaned.  
  
"Look who's talking," he retorted, before whirling and dramatically pointing skyward. "LOOK! Is that a rain cloud?!"  
  
Not only did the accuser turn in shock at the miraculous non-existent rain cloud, but most of Deen seemed to as well. "We escape," Hawk whispered, whisking the three of them into the inn, leaving the small crowd to debate whether that smudge in the sky was a cloud or merely smoke. The stranger in the big turban paused, looking about, then patted his pocket at length. "HEY! My wallet!"  
  
"That was lucky," Duran huffed, resting in a chair while Hawk handed the innkeeper some more money that he acquired from.... somewhere.... clearly pleasantly surprised by the cheap, cheap prices and even handing over some extra cash for the innkeeper's silence.  
  
"The sad thing is they fell for such an obvious trick," the Princess tittered, flicking her hair over her shoulder to air it out. It was getting to evening, they were in the shade and she still felt sweaty. She was looking forward to a nice cold bath.  
  
"The really sad thing is that it's fifth time I've used it and it still works."  
  
"So, what's the plan from here? Why are we at the inn?" Duran asked.  
  
The Knight's short-term memory never ceased to amaze the Princess. "We're hiding, remember? I assume we're going to leave once the crowd disperses. Hawk?"  
  
Choosing a chair by the small window, the thief shook his head. "I'd like to agree with you, but we're going to just have to head out a little before dawn tomorrow to go to the Valley of Flames."  
  
"What? Why? Wouldn't it be cooler travelling at night?" Angela argued. A whole DAY in that heat? Whatever would that do to her complexion? Though that was even more time with Duran with his shirt off.....  
  
"It's a waste of valuable time! Mana around here is clearly in peril!" the Fairy pitched in as well, though everyone, including her heroic Knight, just ignored her.  
  
"It would be, but Navarre's ninjas can use the cover of night. I could probably manage it alone, but with the three of us it would be too dangerous. There will be less of them in the daylight hours, and they'll be easier to spot, too," the Ranger advised, rocking back on his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head.  
  
Sighing and accepting defeat at the hands of logic, Angela announced, "Fine then, I'm going to go have a bath! And no peeking, HAWK."  
  
He mocked offense. "What about Duran?"  
  
Of course she didn't care if Duran peeked. Of course, that wouldn't do as an answer. "Duran clearly has more honour than you!" A little flattery never went awry. In fact, at the mention of honour the Knight practically beamed.  
  
Just then, the innkeeper knocked on the door. "What is it?"  
  
"I just wanted to let you know, that due to water restrictions the bath won't be operating," he called through. "Have a nice stay!"  
  
Angela collapsed to her knees. "Why, Goddess?! Why?!""  
  
The Fairy was still stubbornly floating around, offering her useless opinion. "Why not?"  
  
"Shut up! UNDINE!"  
  
The Elemental of Water floated into existence. "How may I be of service?"  
  
"Could we perhaps grab a bath, please?" Angela beseeched, just about ready to get on her knees in front of the Elemental.  
  
"Hmph, I never get a 'please'," the other being huffed nearby.  
  
Thinking the request over, the Elemental seemed to find no reason to refuse, and from nowhere buckets of water splashed over their heads. "What the-?"  
  
While Hawk swore in surprise and Duran tried to keep the water from getting on the straw beds, Angela smiled happily, at last getting some form of refreshing shower. The Fairy sighed. "I really, really wish you'd stop abusing your power."  
  
"Angie, with your dress wet like that you do know that I can see your-"  
  
"Don't you dare finish that sentence! HOLY BALL!"  
  
The Fairy threw her hands up into the air in disgust, floating back over to the comparative sanity of Duran's head. "I give up."  
  
_____________________  
  
Prize goes out to 300th reviewer, I'll E-Mail them (no, that's not the prize, it's about the prize. Though if anyone wants me to E-Mail them feel free to ask). Thanks to all the reviewers out there! I love you all, I really do. 


	29. Requiem to a Desert Flower

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for more grand swearing and violence and even PLOT DEVIATIONS! (Gasp!) Don't flame - you were warned.  
  
Author's note: Tada! New chapter! I wasn't going to end this chapter where it ended, but well.. Didn't want it to be too long or keep you waiting. It was too big to really fit in one chapter. Anyhoo, enough on that, on to BIGGER, more action-packed news! Lucky 300th reviewer was Wings of Lead! I even went back and counted all 300 reviews to make sure (seeing as all the counters said something different, and I was really, really bored and have no life). The prize, as I mentioned for those of you who didn't listen (putting on scolding teacher voice), was a fanfiction or fanart of the winner's choice! Which in Wings of Lead's case was a fanart! I am now abusing my fingers like never before. Thanks to everyone for reaching such a revolutionary number! You know, I almost feel like I matter. Anyhow, this chapter will probably be a little more serious. Then again, I'm not making promises. Ah screw it. Prepare for the usual trash and randominity.  
  
Response to the much-loved Reviewers!:  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: COOKIES! Cookies cookies cookies cookies cookies! Awww, I love you too, Kurai. (And not just for the cookies, either.)  
  
DeezlJaw: Thank you!  
  
The Genki Girl: Whoosh, you went nuts with the reviews! (And all were good). Yes, Yue is very, very bishie. So is Dilly, now I think about it. OH MY GOD, I have the same complex as you! You must be contagious. (Puts on mask). Yes, Hawk/Angela moments come.. Veeery slowly. I'm waiting for the return of Halley's comet. I take a lot of time to do anything. Chapters, laundry, plot arcs, fanart, cooking, laundry... you must introduce your decaying banana Russell to the decaying apple in my fridge Jerry. I named it after a pigeon that stole my lunch. Oh, and the bweeps were new reviewer alerts! Maybe I'll stop taking shortcuts, ne? As for your suggestion.. (rubs hands together gleefully.) P.S. Nude Hawk would be better. OMG, did I just say that?  
  
Bishiehuggler: Thanks for the site! I gave it a quick squiz just then, and it looks most interesting! Ta muchly.  
  
Slash The Ironman: Look behind your shoulder! TEACHER! Thanks for the review. Hope you find a good school, you know, after they boot you out for abusing internet privileges.  
  
Tramontana Keeper: (Must... resist... urge to call you Undine..) congrats on the account, very grooV. I personally liked the rain cloud myself. Nope, never been to Ayers Rock (or Uluru, as some people prefer). It's a freakin' huge rock two and a half day's drive from anywhere. Did you fly? Not so bad if you fly, but, y'know. money and stuff... thanks for the review!  
  
Meaningless: Yes. As I keep saying. Author's Notes, people! Welcome to the fic, though, your review is welcome if you're a A/H fan! And what the hell, even if you're not. (big secret: I don't really like Duran much. Hush hush.)  
  
Fabi-Chan1: New reviewer! Yay! Thank you!  
  
Tom Gyllhamn: Did I just accidentally set myself another high standard? Ooops. I ate your turkey. What? I was HUNGRY! Feed the starving author, people. Come to think of it, when WAS the last time I ate?.. oh yes, Kurai's cookies. Thanks for the review!  
  
Terra-sama: Prize is in the author's note, sorry you missed out. DEATH TO INSECTS! Thanks for your review, but! Cheers.  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: Then I have done some good, I can die happy. Thank YOU.  
  
Wingnut: Ah. It all makes sense. People, pay attention to Wingnut's shameless self-plugs! What fandom are they in, anyway? Thanks as always for your most entertaining review.  
  
WaterDragonerS: Thank you for your votes! They don't count, since voting closed three months ago, but thanks anyway! (I've given up explaining myself). I didn't bother with changing colours, story and chapters are taking plenty long even without worrying about accuracy. My congrats on Sammy seeing the light (don't go into the light, Sammy! You're too young to die!). Ta for the review.  
  
Wolf of Darkness: Thank you!  
  
^_^: Carlie's fate is still contentious. We'll see. Thanks for the review!  
  
Salamandarin: Thanks! Swooning, swooning for everyone!  
  
Oxi-Nu: There, there. Have some coffee. Coffee makes everything right.  
  
Cynthen: I'm on a favourites' list! GASP! What honour your bestow me! Thanks very much! Hey, am I senile or are you a new reviewer? Welcome!  
  
Wings of Lead: Congratulations on having such lucky stars as to miraculously winding up being the 300th reviewer! 300 must be your lucky number or something. I am currently attempting to work on your fanart. No quality promises, but I'll do my best. Thanks for your reviews, come to think of it, the Chibikko Hammer just kind of disappears. Hmm.  
  
Mig-31: Oooo, just missed out! Why yes, that WAS Carlie falling off Booskaboo, so acute of you to notice (whistles innocently). ME, transparent? Nah, I have a feeling she'll be back (seeing as she's so popular and all.) Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Freeloader1: (Points out). Forced humour there, there, and over there. Make sure you don't trip on it. I have to agree, as much as I like Angela, she IS a spoilt Princess. Hawk reminds you of yourself? Hey, where did my computer go?  
  
Thanks to everyone as usual for all their reviews and everything, makes writing this truly worth it! I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 29 - Requiem to a Desert Flower  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The Desert of Scorching Heat was aptly named. Of course, Angela didn't truthfully expect anything different, seeing as life hadn't given any of them much of a break thus far. Still, the heat was such that it was difficult to even appreciate the much Duran-with-his-shirt-off time she was enjoying. How Hawk managed to seem at ease in his full length tunic and pants had to be nothing short of the work of the Mana Goddess.  
  
To support that thought, the Fairy drifted lazily in the air beside the Princess, immune to the heat and for once content that the various desert fiends they encountered didn't seem to pose too much threat to her, most of them sleeping at this time of day, minus a couple of sand stingers and two or three ninjas they had stumbled across. Thanks to Duran's healing magic and some quick retaliation on Hawk's part, they had won each of the scuffles with little more than a few scratches to show for their trouble. They all seemed to be getting better at this fighting stuff. The class change had indeed helped a great deal, as well.  
  
The Ranger slowed his pace a little to walk side by side with the Delvar. "You holding up okay there, Angie?"  
  
Not willing to admit weakness, she muttered out a, "I'm fine," through gritted teeth. After a moment, though, she couldn't hold in the one comment she'd been dying to say for the past three hours. "It's really, really hot."  
  
"And Angela wins a prize for stating the obvious," the Fairy commented sarcastically nearby, obviously still cranky at having to delay their trip to the Mana stone for nearly a whole twelve hours for something as frivolous as avoiding hordes of deadly ninjas.  
  
"You think this is bad, just wait until we get to the Valley of Flames."  
  
"Gee, Hawk, thanks for the uplifting comment, it really makes it easier."  
  
"How much farther?" Duran asked, stoically attempting to be macho and ignore the heat, and succeeding thus far.  
  
"Actually, we're quite close. You're lucky you're with me! I know all the shortcuts through the desert!" Hawk announced, wagging a finger and striding into the lead once again. He stomped on a sand stinger hiding in the sand and stabbed it quickly with a dagger, moving on as though nothing had happened.  
  
Even the honorable Duran looked annoyed just then. It had taken the Knight quite a few sword strikes to dispatch the last one of those he had come across. "There, there, Duran, he's probably been killing those things all his life," Angela comforted.  
  
Looking guilty at being caught out in a moment of self-doubt, the Knight proceeded from looking lost to laughing nervously, then hurrying on to catch up with his friend.  
  
"Give it up, Angela, I don't think he's interested already," the Fairy advised, floating languidly beside her still.  
  
"I'm the heir to the throne of Altena! I will never admit to defeat!" she announced, glaring at her tiny companion with all the hatred she could muster. Which, given the heat, wasn't much at all. Sighing, her shoulders drooped as she lagged behind the others. "Why is it so hard? Why hasn't he shown the slightest clue yet?"  
  
Oh no, the heat was getting to her, she was starting to mutter her insecurities out loud. Clamping a hand over her mouth determinedly, the Delvar ignored the titterings of the Fairy, obviously once again trying to impart some of her so-called divine wisdom as she stepped up the pace to walk with the Knight and the Ranger.  
  
"Nearly there," Hawk assured her as they walked along the sandy path, heading into a rockier part of the desert. Why he thought going into a place WARMER than this was a good thing was beyond her comprehension. At least, if worst came to worst there was always Undine....  
  
"Don't even consider wasting your magic like that," the Fairy warned, at last beginning to tire and landing on her shoulder.  
  
"The more you waste your energy reading my mind the more I'm at liberty to waste magic! And I would hardly call it waste!"  
  
"Shhhh!" Hawk suddenly shushed them, crouching down and dragging Duran with him to hide behind a boulder. They seemed to have reached some sort of entrance, shrouded by craggy rock. Was it just Duran, or was it even hotter all of a sudden?  
  
"What is it?" she whispered back. The Fairy had disappeared back into Duran's head, so that was always surely a sign that something bad was going to be going down.  
  
"Looks like we're not the only ones here," the thief motioned, indicating several forms gathered around the entrance to the caverns.  
  
Indeed, a by-now familiar woman and vampiric-like creature were talking, rather animatedly, by the cave entrance. Grand. Bigieu and her little buddy Jagan again. These two scared her less every time. They might have been heavy hitters once, but with five elementals and a class change under their belts, they weren't nearly as scary as they used to be.  
  
"The Fairy says they must be here for the Mana Stone. We should stop them!" Duran urged.  
  
Okay, those two might not have been as scary as Koren or Carlie, but that still didn't mean it would be a good idea to go toe-to-toe with them, Angela corrected herself sternly. She hadn't had the chance to fight either Bigieu or Jagan, so for all she knew they were just as strong, if not more so, than Koren. Glorious, there went all of the confidence she'd gathered over the past couple of weeks at the thought of a serious death match...... Not that everything else they had faced before hadn't been trying to kill them, it was just a little more scary when your opponent actually showed some vestiges of intelligence, and even more so when there was a high possibility they were smarter than you.  
  
Returning her focus to the dilemma at hand, Angela paid keen attention to the movements of their opponents. They were fortunately just within earshot - though the way the two allies were carrying on, nearly anyone in Navarre would be.  
  
Bigieu in particular was clearly fuming, tossing her pink hair over her shoulder dramatically. "I can't believe he LAUGHED at us! The indignation! No one shows the children of the shadows the respect they deserve! This is all YOUR fault, Jagan! We should have gone at night!"  
  
The vampiric underlying seemed hesitant in his response. "I didn't think it would matter."  
  
"Of COURSE it matters! It makes sense to be all threatening at midnight, but it just doesn't have the same effect during the hours of day! Why do you think I took over a thieves' guild?!"  
  
"Because they were the only group of people who would let you wear that dress?"  
  
"BECAUSE THEY WORK AT NIGHT!"  
  
Suddenly, Angela was feeling a little better about their chances again.  
  
By now, Jagan was desperate for a chance to redeem himself. "Oh. Would it help if I got us some red candles for our next sacrifice in atonement?"  
  
".....Yes. Some pretty red candles would be good."  
  
Having the notion that this could go on all day, Angela cleared her throat nervously, stepping forward. The pair whirled at their arrival. "You again! Jagan, I thought you killed them!"  
  
"They must be undead, risen at our call! Tell me, restless spirits, who gave you permission to come to this land?" Jagan ordered.  
  
Permission?  
  
"The Mana Goddess?" Angela guessed.  
  
Jagan didn't really have an answer for that.  
  
"Jagan, perhaps it would be best if for now you vanished to the shadows. I will take care of it," Bigieu ordered, moving to take center position in front of her three challengers.  
  
Hawk's eyes didn't leave the woman, or her enchanted necklace, for even a second. Not even as Jagan looked around in confusion, realising that a desert was not big on shadows, before stepping back into the darkness of the cave entrance. "Whoosh!"  
  
Their odds had already improved dramatically, it seemed, without them even having to cast a single spell. Still, for Bigieu to make such a move, she must be fairly confident....  
  
Hawk tensed - Angela suddenly realised that somewhere along the line Hawk's short swords had appeared in his hands, and the thief looked ready to leap at the woman without a moment's notice. It seemed that the Delvar wasn't the only one to see this, as the former Isabella waved a hand at them.  
  
"Now, now, Hawk, don't be acting rashly," she sneered. Previously concealed from sight, Angela gasped as Hawk's two ninja friends they had encountered before came forward, dragging a young girl with blue hair between them. What was going on? "Or have you forgotten....?"  
  
Hawk barely concealed a wrangled cry. "Jessica!"  
  
THIS was Jessica?  
  
She was gorgeous. Oh shit.  
  
This clearly was the Princess of Navarre, if a thieves' guild could have such a thing. Her features were so delicate she could have been a doll, and how by the power of Mana her hair could be so shiny and well arranged in this heat was beyond the Delvar's comprehension. Her skin was as smooth as if she hadn't seen a day of work in her life, and those big lustrous eyes and tiny nose and mouth would have to be the envy of every girl, much less Princess, of all the lands. Dear Goddess, even Duran was staring! This was so unfair!  
  
"Let her go!" Hawk ordered.  
  
"Let go of my insurance? I think not, silly boy," Bigieu laughed. Jessica looked up, eyes focusing on Hawk. It looked as though she had been crying, but hope flitted over her features for just a moment upon recognition.  
  
"Hawk!" she called out.  
  
"Stay where you are, Jessica, you'll be okay," he counselled softly. Duran too had his sword at the ready by now, though seemed uncertain what to do in the stalemate.  
  
Bigieu, in the meantime, seemed to be considering something quite carefully. Whatever it was, she apparently dismissed it, turning and grabbing a hold of the girl's arm, tugging the frightened Princess towards the cave entrance with her. Hawk took an involuntary step forward, but Duran's hand on his shoulder stilled him from taking another. "So sorry to leave you, but I'm kind of in a hurry. Bill, Ben! Take care of this trash for me, will you?"  
  
The two ninjas nodded as their leader dragged their captured Princess into the Valley of Flames with her. "She's going after the Mana Stone!" Angela realised. "We can't waste time fighting these bozos!"  
  
Hawk wasn't having anything of it either way. With the added speed of a Ranger, he started racing towards the entrance to the cave. Duran, catching on to what was happening, moved to follow, Angela bringing up the rear. They were NOT going to be beaten to another Mana Stone!  
  
Bill and Ben, though, were ninjas themselves. Though at the rate they were thinking, they just might make it into the caverns before either could react. Blinking, Bill finally yelled out, "Come on, Ben! Get your fat carcass moving and catch them before they can get away!"  
  
Ben looked sulky. "No. You called me fat."  
  
"This isn't the time!"  
  
"Apologise!"  
  
"What-?! Fine.... you're not fat!"  
  
The three Mana heroes were almost inside, when the two ninjas at last resolved their temporary dispute and moved to block the entrance. Cursing and jumping back in time to avoid a messy collision, Hawk slid into a fighting stance, the Delvar and Knight following suite seconds later. Looks like they weren't fast enough to get past them after all. At least with their class change these two ought to be an easier fight this time. The quicker they were done with Bill and Ben, the quicker they could get after Bigieu.  
  
"Angie, Duran," Hawk said. "I know Bill and Ben are our enemy, but if at all possible I'd rather not kill them." His voice sounded a little strained.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Hawk," Duran assured him, adjusting the grip of his sword and checking his hastily thrown-back-on armour.  
  
"I'm afraid you can't go any further," Bill said.  
  
"We're going to have to kill you now," Ben agreed matter-of-factly.  
  
"Come on, we won last time and we were just novices then!" Angela jibed, placing her feet apart and solidly on the ground. At least these two wouldn't have any surprises for them this time.  
  
"Yes, but we're stronger now too! We won't hold back! Ben! Super Fusion!"  
  
"Oh, no, not this again," the Princess groaned.  
  
"Angie, get ready to do your Star Attack thing that you did last time," Duran said, edging forward slightly, raising his sword into a defensive position.  
  
"I'm already halfway there," she responded, as the two ninajs blurred and became one. She felt the power building up at the ends of her fingertips, ready to be blasted through her staff.  
  
Just as the two ninjas' transformation completed and they moved forward, she let loose with a magical barrage of energy. All were temporarily blinded for a moment, their sight returning to reveal.....  
  
"IT DIDN'T WORK?!" Angela screeched in disbelief, already leaping backward to avoid the thrust of Bill and Ben's dagger. Okay, that was a little closer than what she was comfortable with.  
  
"I guess they learned some new tricks too," Hawk said grimly, as the combined ninjas descended on him next. They tussled blades for a moment, the Ranger managing to get in a few small scrapes on his opponent's right arm, and dislodging another one of his weapons from his hand. "Blast them with some magic, Angie! Do you have anything more powerful?"  
  
"I know just what to use!" She called back, Duran moving to defend her while she powered up a spell. In the spirit of teamwork, Hawk was busy keeping his ex-friends occupied, and considering how much faster and stronger he had become since his class change, the fact that he was quickly getting backed up against a wall was not a positive sign of the direction Bill and Ben had gone. It probably didn't help that both she and Duran were operating in uncomfortable conditions that the ninjas were clearly acclimatised to.  
  
"Angie!" Hawk called desperately; any blows he was landing were seeming ineffectual against the monstrosity.  
  
"Get out of there, Hawk!" she ordered. The thief leapt out of the line of fire as spars of darkness began to materialise around the giant ninja. "DARK FORCE!!"  
  
The combined ninjas were enveloped by stabbing spears of powerful dark magic. Hawk rolled away and sprang back to his feet. As the last wisps of Angela's spell rose into the ar, it seemed as though her plan had succeeded - Dark Force had managed to break the spell. Now, able to pick one target a little closer to his own size, Hawk moved in on a slightly dazed Ben, and with a series of deft moves disarmed and disabled his brainwashed friend. Ben fell to the ground in an unconscious heap, fortunately relatively unhurt.  
  
Bill, on the other hand, was caught less by surprise, and moved in on Duran with startling agility. The Knight took a bad blow to the shoulder before he managed to bring up his sword in defense, recklessly swinging at his attacker even as blood started to pour down his arm.  
  
Duran was clearly struggling to ward off his attacker with a severly impaired sword arm, the ring of daggers scraping against his shield and armour constant under Bill's flurry of attacks.  
  
"Hold on, Duran!" Angela yelled, twisting her staff to hold it at her target, ready to call up a spell. Dammit, the ninja was fast. The Navarrian didn't stay still long enough for her to even hope to hit him with a spell. "Stay put already!"  
  
Bill didn't pay any heed, still furiously attacking Duran. However, his attacks were cut short as suddenly spikes burst from the ground without warning, entrapping him in a circle, ripping at the edges of his fabric and one scraping his hand enough for him to drop his weapon from it. The Navarrian cursed, stepping back and clutching his bleeding hand, momentarily trapped. What the-?  
  
Angela looked over, noticing Hawk crouched with a hand to the ground. HE did that? That was a new one on all of them. "Now, Angie!"  
  
Bill wouldn't stay trapped for long, already scrambling to make his way out of his cage of spikes. With such a fast opponent, especially one she'd rather not kill, Angela only had the time to call up a Holy Ball - by now quite proficient at calling them. "HOLY BALL!"  
  
The balls of white magic pummeled the ninja, not powerful enough to hurt him, but certainly plenty to daze him. Not wasting a moment, Hawk ran up and jabbed his brainwashed friend in the back of the neck with the hilt of his short sword. Bill at last collapsed as well, bleeding and bruised in his cage of spikes, but alive.  
  
"Thanks," Duran panted, dropping to his knees, trying to catch his breath. He was still bleeding from the gash in his shoulder.  
  
Okay, fawning time! Nothing like playing nursemaid for a guy. "Duran! You're hurt!"  
  
The Fairy flurried from his head, wings flapping furiously. "Wisp will take care of this! Duran, hurry and call your healing magic!"  
  
"Out of the way, insect," Angela hissed, waving her aside and rushing to her fallen beloved's side.  
  
"It's fine, Princess," he assured her, holding his left hand over his right shoulder. It glowed with holy light, and when he removed it, the wound was closed, though his shirt and arm was still covered with blood. It was a mighty good thing she was less squeamish than she used to be - a month ago the sight of such a wound would probably have sent her at least slightly dizzy.  
  
Wait, there was something a girl was supposed to do in these situations... think, think..... oh, that's right! Fishing out her scarf she'd worn for a while in Altena, she pressed it into the Knight's hand. "Here, use this to clean yourself up. Don't worry about getting it dirty," she said sweetly.  
  
"Uh, thanks...," Duran said, blinking and uncertain what exactly to do with the situation. He started wiping his arm clean as best he could.  
  
"We can't waste time here. I'm going after Bigieu," Hawk interrupted, breaking the moment.  
  
Suddenlt remembering that their battle was far from over, Duran pushed himself to his feet, completely forgetting about the Princess's scarf. Well, there was a waste of a gesture if she ever saw one. "That's right. The Mana Stone is in peril. We have to hurry."  
  
"What about them?" Angela asked, inclining her head towards the two unconscious ninja.  
  
"They'll be fine," the Ranger replied, already running for the entrance. The Knight and Delvar sprinted to catch up.  
  
If the Desert of Scorching Heat was hot, the Valley of Flames was the gateway to the Underworld itself. Flames crackled far below the rocky walkways that snaked throughout the caves and caverns, every now and again flaring up so close that it felt like they were licking the soles of their feet. Regardless, Hawk ran through the caverns like a man possessed in Bigieu's trail as they struggled to keep up, passing by various monsters created by the instable Mana without so much as a second thought, only ever pausing long enough to slash their way through anything barring the path.  
  
"There they are!" The Fairy called out, having flown on slightly ahead. She hurried back to sanctuary with Duran, likely not wanting to be in the firing line when Hawk and Bigieu met up. "The Mana Stone is just ahead! Don't let her get to it!"  
  
"Don't worry, she's not going any further," Hawk promised, though it looked more as though he was talking to himself rather than anyone else. "BIGIEU!"  
  
The pink-haired temptress halted in her tracks - she still held Jessica firmly by the arm. Clearly terrified, the young girl stood frozen in place; the two of them were standing on a wooden bridge connecting two plateaus of rock with fire burning hungrily beneath them.  
  
"You again," Bigieu hissed. "I guess this means that those two fools, Bill and Ben, failed me yet again. It's so hard to find competant help these days."  
  
"Don't go one step further, Bigieu," the Ranger warned, taking a threatening step forward.  
  
The woman jerked Jessica by the arm in response. "No, Hawk, I don't think YOU should take another step. You seem to have a short memory."  
  
"I'm not going to let you keep up this game! The Mana Stone will not be yours! Let Jessica go now!"  
  
"If you kill me, she dies," she snarled.  
  
Hawk shook his head, bringing up his sword, glinting in the firelight. "If you use her as a sacrifice to the Mana Stone, she dies anyway. Let her go now, and I may spare your pathetic life."  
  
Angela looked nervously from the Ranger to their enemy. The situation seemed to be standing on a hairpin. They weren't really in a bargaining position, with Jessica's life at stake, but at the same time, they couldn't possibly let her go and have another Mana Stone be unsealed. So, that's why the woman was dragging the blue-haired beauty around - as a potential sacrifice? Bigieu didn't seem like the sort willing to spend her own life to unseal the stone. So maybe Jessica was safer for the time being than they thought. If that was the case, they might win this one yet.  
  
Then again, maybe not. Bigieu was beginning to look impatient. "You know, this girl has become nothing more than a liability now. You've followed me around so insistently because of her, I figure the only way to be rid of you is to be rid of her." Bigieu kept the terrified girl in a stronghold, pushing her up right against the edge of the narrow bridge. The Navarrian Princess barely concealed a squeak of fright as several pebbles were knocked over the edge by her foot, and were enveloped in the hungry flames, a stunning reminder of how very real the danger was. "How about if I push her over the edge, then, Hawk? What do you say then?" she purred.  
  
"You wouldn't. You can't," Hawk said, his voice quiet, disbelieving. "You need her to unseal the Mana Stone. Anything before that, and the curse would kill you too."  
  
"Curse? Ha! You're such a fool, Hawkeye of Navarre!" Bigieu scoffed. She reached for the necklace. The Ranger's eyes widened in shock and she carelessly ripped it free from her neck and tossed it into the flames. Jessica gasped in surprise. "There was no curse! That was just a little story I made up to keep you and your little girlfriend in line!"  
  
Girlfriend?  
  
"Liar," Hawk whispered, disbelieving.  
  
"I'm afraid not. Say goodbye!"  
  
Without any further warning than that, Bigieu pushed the crying girl off the edge. She disappeared with a scream into the flames. Hawk leapt forward recklessly, intent on saving her, even if it meant leaping into the flames to certain death as well. "Jessica!"  
  
"Hawk, no!" Angela yelled in warning and sudden panic as it looked as if the thief was about to sacrifice himself in vain. She couldn't lose Hawk, she just couldn't! Duran was quicker than she, and present enough to grab the thief and hold him back before he could follow through.  
  
Angela almost felt her heart break that moment, as she saw the look of anguish on the normally cheerful thief's face. He collapsed to his knees, eyes squeezed shut to hold back threatening tears.  
  
"Hawk....," Duran murmured, clearly uncertain how to comfort his friend in such a situation. Instead, the Princess moved in his place, placing an arm around the quivering Ranger. She couldn't tear her eyes from the flames where Jessica had disappeared. She had just seen another person die. How many more?  
  
Yet at that point, instead all she could think was - what would Hawk do now? He had just lost his only reason to go on with them. Would he leave, now? What would happen?  
  
The cavern was painfully silent, but for the persistent and eternal crackling of fire below them. Bigieu had used the moment of chaos to escape on ahead unnoticed.  
  
"Eagle.... both of you.... both you and Jessica..... I'm so sorry..... I failed you twice! Twice!" Hawk whispered.  
  
What could she possibly do? As annoying as he could be, Hawk had become a good friend and ally, she admitted to herself begrudgingly. But what could she possibly do to make this situation right? There was nothing. Never before had the Princess felt so powerless, not when her mother decreed her death, not when she was cornered by a Beastman, not even under Duran's crystal-blue-eyed gaze.  
  
"Hawk," she began, but trailed off. There wasn't a darn thing she could say. She still didn't know exactly what the relationship between the Ranger and this Jessica was, but despite her illogical denials, it wasn't hard to guess. She pulled him into a hug, deciding words wouldn't do anything here.  
  
Hawk was still for a long moment, then pulled away. The held back tears had disappeared - now an angry fire burned in his amber gaze.  
  
"Let's go get Bigieu. She's going to die for this."  
  
_____________________  
  
..... Jessica lovers, please don't kill me. Everybody review and tell me what you thought! Thanks a bunch. Let them eat cake. 


	30. What is This Thing Called Sympathy?

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for depressing mood and many uncomfortable silences. I guess.  
  
Author's note: The usual apologies blah blah blah yada yada coffee, anyone? Wow, didn't expect that last chapter to prompt so many reviews, but it was cool, thanks guys! Nothing much to say on this chapter, unfortunately. It'll be better next time, I promise.  
  
Response to the Reviewers!:  
  
Shin-Ryu Warrior: New reviewer? Hello! Cool pen-name! Thanks for the review!  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: COOKIE! You are forgiven. Fairy being heroic? .... can't see it. LOL. Let them eat cake. Thanks for the review!  
  
FrickinEvilPoptart: (Rubs Temples) Former Genki Girl will send me insane with constantly changing names. thanks for all the reviews! Thanks very much for the efforts to make me laugh, worked (can't breath. thunk.) Hawk in a leotard.. There goes my summer, my dream (and my sanity). Arnold as governor? (What the-?) Well, I guess he's still more qualified than some of the other weirdos I've heard about.. LOL, your skit was friggin HILARIOUS. I love subtitled Sailor Moon too. I have all 200 episodes, and movies, and specials. I'm weird.  
  
BSH: (Wracks memory) I remember you! Welcome back! Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Bishiehuggler: Yup. Sorry. Jessica's gone. No resurrections in my fics. I have the Big Turning Event planned though, so I'm going to have to ask you guys to be patient for a few more chapters longer. Thanks for the review!  
  
Wings of Lead: I still love those sites, but they're giving me complexes. BTW, I'm still working on your fanart prize, Wings of Lead! It's nearly finished! Oh, ok, so it's only half-done. But I've been working hard on it! University be willing, I ought to have that to you by the time the next chapter is out. Please forgive me! Thanks very much for your review, I did attempt to give Bigieu and Jagan a bit of a incompetency, after all, in this plot arc, they're inevitably going to fail...  
  
Freeloader1: LOL. A good thing - I'd be a little worried if you had long purple hair. And who couldn't love small concealable blades? Thanks very much for the review!  
  
Truewind: You and me both. You are right about Bill and Ben, I have 'issues' with readjusting events. I can't help myself. Thanks very much for your review - I always enjoy hearing from you.  
  
Terra-sama: Same kind of goes for next chapter. I'll be funnier next time, I promise. Thanks very much for the review, and the suggestions!  
  
Tramontana Keeper: I actually think that Bigieu and Jagan might be my favourite characters to write... you DROVE to Ayer's Rock? You're insane. You have my respect. And my cookies, give them back!  
  
Cookie Pixie: Thanks very much! (Cough cough) Most people are pretty happy about Jessica being gone, not too surprisingly. not to worry, angst will be pretty short-lived. This is, after all, primarily a romantic comedy. Again, thanks for the review! (I think your love for cookies has become contagious.) Love it.  
  
Salamandarin: MORE COOKIES! Chocolate covered, too?! Salamandarin, would be it be wrong for me to say that I love you?  
  
Sereneity-Wheeler2: How could I forget? Long time no see! Thanks for your review!  
  
Mig-31: Bigieu is.. Well, that would be giving things away, wouldn't it? Ack, you must be psychic, I'm reporting you to FBI! Think Jessica broke a few hearts, despite the fact she's only had about 3 mentions and about four words. Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Solarious: (Blinks) That IS long time no see. I thought you were dead. Glad you're not! Omg, YOU picked up the serious vibe too? It wasn't just me, then. Yay, more musing! (Thank the Cookie God). -Blinks- Where did Rosa come into this? Thanks very much for the review, I missed them!  
  
Wingnut: Enter Murphy's law. ( By all means, I INVITE people to plug themselves, it's the only way to get out there, right? I think all successful artists are at least a little insane, so Mozart was probably not just out of his tree, but out of the entire forest. Trying to be quicker with the updates, but I have some evil, evil lecturers who must first be smited. Excuse me while I go put on my smiting glove. Thanks for the review!  
  
^_^: Yes. Yes I did. Thanks for the review!  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: Ditto! I so agree! Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Badnewsbrown: New reviewer, welcome! Well, to be honest, I actually didn't make it that much of a secret that I was going to kill off Jessica. Besides, I have actually read quite a few fics that deal with Jessica differently (though most go for the 'I love her like a sister' thing, which makes me cringe.) I recommend you to BHS's 'Torn Between Two' fic, then! Thanks for the review, and hope you keep reading!  
  
Ignorantly grinning: Another new reviewer! Thanks!  
  
Slash The Ironman: Yeah, I was hoping for that army of darkness to be honest. (I REALLY don't want to do this 3D assignment.) I guess it's a good thing that your school is nicer about internet usage than mine used to be. Bring on the demon horde! Thanks for the review!  
  
Dargon: You know, I actually expected EVERYONE to see that coming. (Shrugs). Oh well, works for me. I must agree, Valley of Flames has to be powered by something, right? Thanks for the review.  
  
That's everyone! Thanks for all of your reviews, you guys make writing this worth it, I'm going to attempt to get out the next chapter sooner, but no promises for that. It's not the best chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 30 - What is this thing called sympathy?  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
In an uncomfortable silence, they set out after Bigieu, Hawk leading the way, seemingly unbothered by the intensifying ferocity of the flames and heat. Their path was empty of any more mysterious creatures - clearly, Bigieu has cleared the path of them already.  
  
Angela clenched her teeth as she ran, trying to suppress her anger at the woman, before deciding that there really was no point, seeing as she was probably going to be dead in just a few minutes by the look in Hawk's eyes. The only reason she'd killed Jessica was to distract them to give herself a chance to escape! She was even worse than Koren and her own mother! At least they were going to use her death for something important! But at the same time, the temptress was foolish in doing so. She couldn't unlock the Mana Stone without a sacrifice, so it was safe for now - the Princess was grateful at least for that. However, she was not. Unless her little buddy Jagan was willing to give himself up.  
  
Pulled from her line of thought by a gasp from Duran, Angela at last focused eyes forward rather than admiring her feet and felt a similar shock ripple through her. Bigieu, standing in front of the Mana Stone. But.....  
  
"It's unsealed!" Duran shouted, reporting the Fairy's hysterics from inside his own head.  
  
"How?! How did she do it?" the Delvar gasped in horror.  
  
The pink-haired temptress turned upon their arrival. "Why, aren't you a sorry bunch. You look upset, Hawk, any reason why?" She laughed at her own wit.  
  
"You die here!" Hawk yelled, flinging a hail of knives in a now well-known Flying Swallow Toss. However, the woman was just as quick - she lifted her hand, and a wall of wind sprung forth, strong enough to scatter their knives far from their intended target. They clattered to the ground noisily.  
  
"How did you unlock the Mana Stone?!" Angela demanded. They had arrived too late again?! She thought for sure this time....  
  
"Oh, that? I simply teleported those failures Bill and Ben here and used their souls to unlock the Stone instead! It was so nice of your not to kill them first!" she gloated. Flipping her hair casually over her shoulder, she continued on, "My work here is done, so I'm afraid that I have no more interest in playing with you. The children of the shadows will rule everything!" With a cackle, she vanished, even as Hawk threw more knives her direction in another futile attempt to stop her. In defeat, he sank to his knees, pounding his fist to the ground in frustration.  
  
"Bill and Ben too... where will she stop?! She hasn't left anyone! Everyone's dead! She killed them all!" the Ranger cursed, pushing himself off the ground and clenching his short swords tightly in his hands.  
  
"We can't waste time here. We still have to find Salamando," Duran pressed, still intent on the mission - which had taken another bad turn with another Mana Stone unsealed before their eyes. Hawk, however, didn't even bother replying.  
  
"Have a little sensitivity, will you?!" Angela demanded in his place. "He's going through a lot!" Whoa, did she just berate her beloved Duran? For ladies-man-wanna-be Hawk? This heat was getting to her. Hopefully the Knight wouldn't notice - too late to be taking back words now.  
  
Hawk shook his head, though, pushing himself to his feet. "He's right. The Mana Stone and Elemental are most important right, now, right?"  
  
"Someone looking for me?!" An orb of fire came flying up from the pit of flames surrounding them, unfolding into....  
  
"Salamando, I presume," Angela stated flatly. What was it with the Elementals and their flair for Dramatic Entrances? The Fairy floated from Duran's head at long last to confirm her assessment.  
  
"Salamando, it's good to see you again," the Fairy seemed to be trying to be upbeat, but another Mana Stone lost was making the strain show on her tiny face.  
  
"Wish I could say the same! I can't BELIEVE that darn Bigieu did this to my Mana Stone! No one makes me lose face like this! Rrrrrrr, I'm STEAMED!" The temperamental Elemental seemed to be puffing up in anger and indignation. The Delvar resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Undine and Shade had given her some hope towards the rest of the Elementals acting a little more like deities were supposed to, but Salamando had apparently just killed that train of thought.  
  
However, no time was to be wasted on that thought, as Salamando was barreling on before the Fairy could even get a word in edgewise. "I'm gonna get EVEN! This just BURNS me up! Hey, I like you guys here, you have some serious FIRE in ya! How about I give you my power, and we can go save Mana, alright? With all the others there, you'll snuff out any opposition like a candle! And you there, sorceress! You have some spunk! I'm gonna give you my magic, too, okay? I know you'll BLOW away the opposition! Yeah! Go for it!"  
  
A little dumbfounded, Angela just nodded. So here came fire magic. She had blink extra hard to keep the gleam out of her eye. With fire magic on her side, she wasn't too far from being on par with the Wizard of the Red Lotus. As brash and undignified as he was, the Delvar had a feeling that she was going to like Salamando.  
  
"Um," the Fairy stuttered, obviously still surprised at how quickly things had proceeded without her help.  
  
"Let's go, team! You have to go find some more Mana Stones! Let's put the HEAT on those jerks, okay?" In a bright blaze of glory, Salamando vanished from sight, but not from mind.  
  
"Now there's an Elemental with an obsession over bad puns," the Fairy huffed, annoyed at being left out of the entire conversation.... well, monologue, really, but she had been left out none-the-less.  
  
"That's done. Let's get out of here," Hawk said, turning back to the direction from which they'd come. "I never want to see this place again."  
  
The Fairy floated over to sit on Angela's shoulder, and whispered into her ear, "Does he seem bitter to you?"  
  
"Of course, idiot," she muttered.  
  
"That was uncalled for!"  
  
Rolling her eyes again, the Princess opted to just ignore her miniscule companion once again. Arguing with her was a waste of time. The Mana Goddess would be hearing about this.  
  
The trek back through the caverns was stiflingly silent - even the flames themselves had seemed to die down, likely Salamando's presence with the party calming them.  
  
Nothing more was said until they reached outside the cavern, back into the Desert of Scorching Heat. The first thing Angela noticed was that the sun had set, hopefully meaning that the trip back to Deen would at least be slightly more pleasant than the one there. The second thing she noticed was a vaguely familiar cat-person running towards them.  
  
"Nikita?" the Princess guessed, trying to dredge up the memory from the recesses of her mind. It seemed like an eternity ago that they had visited the shores of Rolante, though in all honesty it probably wasn't even a couple of weeks.  
  
"Hawk," Nikita puffed, trying to catch his breath. "Bigieu is.... Jessica...."  
  
Turning his head away, the Ranger replied, "We already know. It's too late, Nikita."  
  
Their ally's eyes flew wide open at that. His shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry, Hawk. I failed you. I couldn't protect her for you."  
  
Hawk shook his head imperceptibly. "The failure was all mine."  
  
Duran was looking uncomfortable with the heaviness of the situation. "We probably have a lot to talk about, but wouldn't that be a conversation better held back in the safety of Deen?" Bravado or not, Hawk's talk of ninjas scouring the night had clearly unnerved the brave Knight.  
  
Nikita blinked. "Oh...... of course. Come, I know the paths that Navarre's patrols walk - we can avoid any skirmishes with any wildlife my way as well. Stay close and quiet. We can talk when we reach Deen again."  
  
So it was with heavy hearts - and empty wallets, but who was paying attention to that? - that the troupe slunk back to Oasis Village Deen. Once they arrived, the day getting into the later portion of the evening, Nikita paid for their meals and room at the inn, and as tired and worn down as they all were by now, none of them were going to complain. Not that they were in the practice of complaining for free anything, either, for that matter.  
  
Over dinner, the painful details were expressed to the cat-merchant, who by the end of it, was looking as depressed as they felt. "Bill and Ben too....... how horrible. Bigieu is a monster! She completely took over the Navarre fortress, too. When I went back there, the place was still filled with monsters and brainwashed ninja and nightblades. Flamekhan is still in there, too. It's starting to look like the Navarre Thieves Guild's days may be over."  
  
"They're not over yet! If we kill Bigieu, Flamekhan can return to power still," Hawk insisted. Angela was busy focusing on the pattern of the grain of wood on the table. Duran was paying intense attention to the conversation whilst unsuccessfully pretending to be focusing on his meal instead. It was pretty apparent that Hawk was clinging on desperately to whatever was left.  
  
Nikita looked like he wanted to agree, but remained unconvinced. "After hearing he lost both his son AND daughter? Flamekhan will be a broken man. And with the Guild's reputation being dragged through the dirt.... I know we're thieves, but waging war on other nations has won the Guild some powerful enemies. I don't know Hawk...."  
  
The Ranger's shoulders sagged. "Just... don't give up yet, okay? If we can save Flamekhan and get rid of Bigieu, maybe....."  
  
Clearly anxious to change the subject, Duran interjected, "What are you going to do now, Hawk?" Angela looked up reflexively at this. It was true that when the thief had joined them, it was merely to reach the Mana Holyland to get the curse on Jessica lifted - a curse which hadn't even existed in the first place. It was no wonder none of the Elementals or the High Priest hadn't heard of it. Hawk looked deep in thought at the question.  
  
Nikita shifted uncomfortably, looking like he REALLY didn't want to say what he was about to say. "Even if we CAN reinstate Flamekhan, I don't know if we'd be able to lift the death penalty off your head, Hawk. Maybe if Jessica were still alive, she'd have swayed opinion, but without that.... you've killed an awful lot of ninja."  
  
"That was in self-defence!" Angela half-shouted, quickly lowering her voice when the innkeeper looked over at them curiously. "Surely with Bigieu...."  
  
The Ranger cut her off, though, "He's right, Angie. Life in the desert is harsh - there isn't any forgiveness in these lands for anyone else, why should I be any different?" Sighing, her companion ran a hand tiredly through his violet hair. "What happens later doesn't matter yet. First order of business is to take Bigieu down. Since she seems to be turning up at all the Mana Stone locations, I may as well keep travelling with you guys, right? Chances are, we'll run into her again." It sounded more as though he was convincing himself than them, though. Nikita and Duran were both busy nodding encouragingly.  
  
Inwardly, though, Angela couldn't stem her wave of relief. Wait a minute, why was she relieved? This had just cheated her of a prime opportunity to get a whole lot of alone-time with Duran. Then again, alone-time with Duran was pretty much impossible with that annoying glowing gnat of a Fairy playing chaperone all the time. Still, she reluctantly admitted, if Hawk left, she'd miss having him around to test magic on and flirt with. Not to mention he was of supreme importance in her plan to seduce Duran. Which still hadn't yet reaped any tangible rewards, even if it did look like it was working.  
  
That was all irrelevant, though, she decided. Hawk was going to continue on with them, and things would probably stay as was in this nice comfortable routine of chasing up Mana Stones and fighting off who knew what to do so. At least, until they reached the Mana Holyland and then..... argh, she was too tired be thinking this deeply now! There was still another two whole Mana Stones to go before she had to start even remotely thinking about the future! On that note, how would killing Koren get her mother to raise the death penalty off her own head? She started to get a least an inkling of the feelings the Ranger might have been grappling with at that time.  
  
This was too much! "Okay, that's decided then! I guess we'll leave for the Moonlight Forest tomorrow! The Mana Stone of Wood is probably still the safest. I'm going to sleep. If you're all smart, you will too!"  
  
The two men and one cat merchant were left blinking uncertainly. Nikita finally said, "You two keep saying she's a Princess.... is she really?"  
  
"I heard that! HOLY BALL!"  
  
A short-tempered Delvar stomped off to bed, leaving a singed and bug-eyed Nikita on the floor. She settled down on the comfortable mattress, exhausted after the harrowing day.... only to find she couldn't sleep. Some time later, she heard Duran and Hawk giving their own farewells before coming into the room to sleep themselves. Duran seemed to fall asleep quickly, judging by his snores.  
  
The night passed painfully slowly - she could hear the Ranger shifting around periodically as well, so either his own sleep was unrestful or he couldn't sleep either. Little surprise. Duran was still snoring, a couple of hours later. Really, if that man hadn't been born so handsome, his skull would have met the business end of her crystal rod long ago.  
  
She must have drifted off eventually, though, because soon she was blinking back the glare of sunlight in her eyes. Ugh, morning already?  
  
Looking over, she caught sight of the Knight sitting on the bed across the room, shining his sword and armour, already preparing to leave. Hawk, surprisingly enough, was already awake, if he had ever even gone to sleep. "It's about time you woke up! Hurry up, we're leaving in less than an hour!" the Fairy admonished.  
  
"Relax, gnat, the Mana Stone isn't going to run away!" she snapped back irritably. If the glowing being of irritation could read minds, then you'd think it would know not to bother a Princess in the early hours of morning!  
  
"Like the Mana Stone of Fire did?"  
  
The room went deathly silent. The Fairy seemed to realise she'd spoken out of turn, and hurried back into her beloved Mana hero's head, who was busy tugging on his boots and clearly oblivious to all of the bad vibes flying around the room. Finally, he stood. "Everyone ready to go?"  
  
Angela hurriedly tugged on her own boots, snatching up her staff and smoothing out her hair. In a place with as little amenities as Deen, there was no point trying to make herself beautiful. Hopefully in the Beast Kingdom..... the BEAST KINGDOM? Given how its warriors smelt, they wouldn't have facilities there, either! By the time she reached appropriate civilization again, she'd look like a cavewoman! If Riesz saw her now, the other Princess would be horrified! What made it all the much worse was that DURAN was seeing her like this! By the Goddess, if-  
  
"Okay then, let's head out. We can eat breakfast on Booskaboo again, so we get to the Moonlight Forest sooner. It's quite a long way from here," Duran cheerfully informed them, shouldering his shield. Silently, both Hawk and Angela nodded, following the Knight outside the inn, outside of Deen, and back through the desert onto the beach from which they had arrived.  
  
Duran played the flute once again to call their giant turtle friend. Settling himself down onto the sand, he advised, "He might take a while, may as well make ourselves comfortable while we wait." What DID Booskaboo do in its spare time? And when did Duran decide it was a 'he'?  
  
Sighing, the Princess paced back and forth for a time, impatient and annoyed as her beloved Forcenan chatted amiably to the Fairy while Hawk sat in a self-imposed silence he'd maintained since the night before, no doubt brooding over the events of the day before.  
  
Sitting down, the Delvar sun baked for a while, before admitting that after all the desert travel sun baking was nowhere near as enjoyable as it used to be, especially not in the intense heat of Navarre. Duran was still busy talking to the Fairy - she caught the words 'Mana', 'sword' and 'Goddess' thrown in occasionally, so it didn't take a genius to figure out the subject of conversation. The Knight was ever focused on his mission of saving the world and killing Koren, to the exclusion of everything else, apparently. Come to think of it, she hadn't thought about killing Koren for days now. What was her problem?  
  
Immediately, she thought to rectify the issue by envisioning the wizard suffer his fiery, then his icy, then his windy death, all in succession. However, most infuriatingly, her gaze kept drifting over to where Hawk was sitting, staring at the sand.  
  
"Hey, you holding up okay?" she asked, trying to break some of the barrier their companion had put up around himself since the day before. The Ranger didn't even indicate he'd heard her, still staring at the sand.  
  
She couldn't stand seeing the thief like this. What could she possibly do to take his mind of the situation?  
  
"I just realised - I have a brand new spell and I haven't even tried it out yet!" she announced in glee, holding out her staff. "FIRE BALL!"  
  
By the sweetness that was Salamando's power, this spell was beautiful. She had a feeling that she and fireball were going to be very good friends indeed. Whirling, she turned at directed the orb of fire at the thief. "Heads up!"  
  
Suddenly startled when the thief didn't even budge, the Delvar frantically called up Undine's power. "Cancel, cancel! Ice Smash!" Why didn't he move? He could see it coming! She even gave him warning!  
  
"Ah, heh heh." The Princess laughed nervously as the two spells cancelled each other just in time, and Hawk merely stared blankly at where the spell had disappeared, moments before meeting with target. Heart beating fast, she sank back onto the sand, trying to avoid Duran's look of concern and the Fairy's look of annoyance. Like the irritating gnat had any reason to preach to her! Okay, so it wasn't the most sensitive thing to do in the world, but it wasn't like the Fairy was such a good example either. At least she had good intentions! Stupid thief!  
  
Fortunately for her, Booskaboo finally arrived, crashing up on to the beach in his usual spectacular spray of sea and sand. The group clambered aboard wordlessly, save for Duran's directions to the Moonlight Forest. The Knight then proceeded to ration out their breakfast food - strange how comfortable she was becoming with the idea of picnicking on the back of a giant turtle.  
  
So in an uncomfortable silence, the trio and a half watched Navarre grow smaller, and eventually disappear behind them. Angela admitted to herself that she was going to miss seeing Duran with his shirt off. But at the same time, after everything that had gone down there, she hoped she would never have to see Navarre again.  
  
It was night by the time Booskaboo reached the Moonlight Forest, though Angela could have sworn it ought to have still been early afternoon. They disembarked, again for some obscure reason having to offer Booskaboo a piece of candy before it would leave them alone - the turtle was clearly developing some sort of chocolate dependency, they ought to check to see what the effects of sugar on aquatic life were. The beach was quiet, with the waves lapping quietly at the shores - the forest itself loomed before them, somewhat dark and foreboding. Only a glimmer of light protruded from the trees.  
  
Indicating the light with a tilt of her head, Angela led the way towards it, and was startled to run into an old biddy just as she emerged from the tree-line. "Hello. Welcome to Moonlight City Mintos." The old bag droned, not seeming at all startled by their sudden and still-slightly ragged appearance.  
  
"Moonlight City Mintos?" Angela asked. She'd never even heard of the place. Didn't the Moonlight Forest belong to the Kingdom of the Beastmen? What were HUMANS doing here?  
  
"Yes. Moonlight City Mintos. The Beastmen let us live here in peace, and we don't bother them, either. It's always night, here. The inn is that way." With that, the old crone hobbled over to the town fountain, and started waving her stick at some young children. She was clearly crazy. Always night? Senile old bag.  
  
"There doesn't seem much point in heading into the Moonlight Forest at night, is there?" Angela asked, having the feeling that she was talking to herself as neither Hawk nor Duran seemed to be paying any attention. Hawk, she could understand, but had her non-existent relationship with Duran already degraded so much that he didn't even listen to her when she was talking about their task at hand anymore? Really! "After all, Beastmen are more dangerous at night, right? That's what Jose always said. More restless, but more dangerous. I say we take the chance to rest and clean up at the inn, and set out in the morning." Not to mention, after the horrible night's sleep the night before, she'd really like a good rest. Flirting with one Beastman to save their lives was fine - it might take energy to flirt with a whole contingent of them.  
  
The Fairy coughed. "Are you quite finished? Why waste more time? We don't want to lose the Moon Mana Stone, too! Do you want God-Beasts to be rampaging all over the place?"  
  
"Yes!"  
  
"WHAT?!" Clearly they didn't have sarcasm in the Mana Holyland.  
  
"Of course not! Which is why we have to be properly rested for the task at hand so that we do it RIGHT! We'll waste more time if we're wandering around half-asleep!"  
  
"Fine! Don't say I didn't tell you!" The Fairy huffed.  
  
"Don't worry, Fairy, you yourself said that Luna is quite strong," Duran soothed her. Hawk had already long left the conversation and was walking towards the inn.  
  
So they forked over the last of their cash - they ALWAYS seemed to be forking over the last of their cash, weren't they ever going to be something other than on the brink of bankruptcy? - for some rooms at the inn. After a fairly well-cooked dinner, and the unfortunate information that they didn't even HAVE bathing facilities at the backwater inn, despite being in a town that actually had plenty of water, they settled down to bed. Angela was starting to miss the luxuries of the Altenan Palace very much indeed. It was pity she hadn't seen Victor or Jose when she was there last. She missed them at times like this. Heck, she might even hug her MOTHER, right before she strangled her.  
  
At least she could have a peaceful night's sleep in Moonlight City Mintos. But then, the Princess had once again forgotten that even such simple things were now beyond their reach.  
  
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"  
  
Bolting upright in bed, Angela of Altena reached for her cane, ready to give a resounding thwack to any pervert who dare come near. Wait a minute.... that voice was Hawk?  
  
The Delvar was off and running, arriving at Hawk's room the same time as a half-dressed Duran. Half-dressed Duran...... focus on task! Focus on task! Hawk, imminent danger!  
  
Duran kicked open the door, and came in, sword held high, Angela following suite seconds later. "Hawk, what's- huh?"  
  
The Ranger was waving his arms around his head like a madman, but the room was completely empty. He looked as though he had been up and preparing for the day, until he was rudely interrupted...... by what? There was nothing there! "Um....."  
  
"I'm hearing voices in my head! Out, out!" Hawk called frantically, amber eyes wide.  
  
"I'm out already!" a very familiar voice responded. A glowing Fairy followed soon after. "Really! Try to have a conversation with some people, and that's all you get!"  
  
Angela couldn't quite believe her eyes. "What do you think you're doing?! I thought you refused to share a skull with, let me quote 'a dirty rotten low-life thief who has no right to go the Mana Holyland'!"  
  
Hawk was looking perplexed. "It was YOU?!"  
  
"Well, duh," the Princess rolled her eyes. "Of course it was her. Do you know anyone else as un-respectful of other people's privacy and sanity?"  
  
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay! We need three Mana heroes!"  
  
The Ranger looked around nervously, realising he had face to save now, and for once, finding no means of doing so. "Ummmmm, tada!" He threw a smoke bomb he produced from somewhere to the ground. "Disappearing act!" Angela and Duran coughed, waving the smoke away, to find their companion gone.... again. Damn Rangers, disappearing and reappearing on whim.  
  
"Hawk, where did you go? We have to go to the Mana Stone of the Moon today!" Duran demanded, the Princess trying to ignore the fact that he'd announced it like they were going to the ice-cream store instead of going to save Mana. Come to think of it, Hawk owed her an ice-cream, he'd promised her back in Maia.  
  
"But it's still night! I want to go back to sleep!" The Princess complained.  
  
"Ah, Angela, this is the Moonlight Forest, remember?" the Fairy interjected. "It's always night here. And Hawk's over there, behind the curtains."  
  
How about that, the old biddy they'd met earlier WASN'T insane. Hawk too, emerged as predicted, though it seemed more like the Ranger emerged from the wall itself than stepping out from behind the curtains, but he was clearly scowling. "Keep her away from me! Stay out of my head! Angie, how do you DEAL with that? And how does Duran do it full time?"  
  
Waving a hand dismissively, she replied, "It's better if you just pretend it's your conscience - you're a thief, you should have no problem ignoring it!"  
  
Hawk shrugged. "Whatever. Well, there's no point waiting for the sun to come up, let's go find the Moon Mana Stone."  
  
"I went and spoke to the innkeeper about that, he said it was in the Moonlight Tower. So all we have to do is look for a tall tower and go there!" Duran reported happily.  
  
The two men made to leave the room, but the Princess and Fairy lingered just a moment longer. As much as she didn't want to admit it, the Fairy had at least broken Hawk's temporary self-imposed depression at the very least.  
  
"Thanks Fairy."  
  
"Well, someone had to!"  
  
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, and trying really hard not to be offended that a pint-sized insect had succeeded where she, the crown Princess of Altena had failed, she merely retorted, "Why are you floating there wasting time? The Mana Stone of the Moon isn't going come to us you know!"  
  
Poking her tiny tongue out, the Fairy zoomed ahead, through the inn into Duran's head. There was a gasp in the next room moments later, followed by an ominous thump. Running to investigate, on her way through to the outside, Angela caught a glimpse of a clearly shocked, and probably unconscious, innkeeper on the floor.  
  
Stupid Fairy. She'd be the death of them all.  
  
_____________________  
  
Well, that's that done. Please review and tell me what you think! (Please don't hate me.) Let them all eat cake. 


	31. Land of the Midday Moon

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for violence! Let chaos reign!  
  
Author's note: Thanks as usual for everyone's patience, and hope it will remain until Christmas when I will hopefully get my first proper holiday since February. Because of it, I managed to somehow get the next chapter done! How is a mystery both to myself and... Well, mostly myself I guess. Quite frankly, I think it must have been done in my sleep. I barely have time to take care of day-to-day necessities, how am I supposed to support a hobby?! Still, I'm hoping you'll like this chapter because. (wracks brain)... because, um, Kevin has actual LINES! Not just three sentences! At least five, maybe even MORE! Please enjoy.  
  
Response to the Reviewers! (Would it be wrong for me to say that I love you all?):  
  
WaterDragonerS: Soon enough? Kevin at the very least! Thanks for the review! (All 3 of you).  
  
Angierulez: New reviewer! Hi! Thanks!  
  
Nnnnneeeehhhh...: First time I've ever received a review from someone who DIDN'T read the story, but hey, who am I to complain? (Looks bewildered.) Yes, it would be a fair assumption that I really like SD3. (Or I secretly hate it and write all these chapters to torture myself.)  
  
Tom Gyllhamn: Wow! I got to God-status! Better stop there, my head might grow so big that I topple over! LOL, thanks a bunch. Try not to hold your breath for too long. Supposedly this oxygen stuff is important.  
  
Serenity-Wheeler2: Hello! Ta muchly! Thanks very much!  
  
Mig-31: Hawk's angst gets thrown under the blanket for a while. LOL, I think the guys at SQUARE already put enough insinuations in their game that they get away with! Though the fact you picked up on that.. ^_^;; Thanks for your review!  
  
Cookie Pixie: Hawk angst can't stay long - eeek, I'd hate to turn anyone off the story! Hawk buying ice cream. hmm, it'll be a while before they get back into a town, but we'll see.. Thanks for your review!  
  
Just call me Angels: New reviewer! Welcome! Wow, a recommendation, you guys are going to start making me blush. Indeed, not enough Hawk/Angela fanfics, though many people get confused about this one, understandably. ^_^;; I'll most certainly continue writing and finish this - no matter how long it takes, I leave no story unfinished! Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Lone Ronin: Another new review! Hi! Let's see.. Do you really want me to reiterate how I killed Jessica? (Laughs). I suppose it is almost a walk- through, despite my occasional deviations. You want rabites? You shall have rabites! Many rabites, coming soon!  
  
Freeloader1: Yes, indeed, I know you, Freeloader. I'm that girl with the hair you think you only pass by the on the street every now and again (stalk, stalk). Hello Fist, I'm Pylon, how's the weather in your part of town? Really, all of my reviewers seem to be grappling with this concept of oxygen, I must recommend it! Thanks very much for a great review, excuse me now (stalk, stalk).  
  
^_^: Ack! Was that a typo? The Fairy did as much as I can explain for now.  
  
FrickinEvilPoptart: I must thank you for these huge reviews and generous recommendations! My goodness, you're an observant one, I think you're the only one to comment on those trends! I mean (attempts to look innocent) I don't know what you're talking about. Cat food! My first real meal in three whole days. Bless you, EvilPoptart (the one).  
  
Wings of Lead: Hey, I know I promised you that fanart by now, but it's REALLY close, really, I promise! (Promises self never to give out prizes again without planning it properly). I just keep forgetting to finish it! Anyhow, thanks for your patience and a really cool review. That's quite a thought about the Fairy, hmm..  
  
Wingnut: Four hundred? (Looks) Wow. That is pretty cool. I have you guys to thank! Sarcasm, the 'wit of the inferior'? Have you ever perhaps considered that the person who made that comment was in fact, being sarcastic? The joke would be on whoever quoted it back! Guess maybe killing Jessica wasn't as obvious as I thought. Hawk's self-perseveration isn't very high, true, you must be observant to pick that one up! LOL, thanks once again for a great review - all of you! (O.o)  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: I don't know about cheerful.. But yeah! Thanks for the review. Keep up your own good work!  
  
Slash The Ironman: ^_^;; That wasn't quite the point of the evil army of darkness coming to kill me, but at least now I'm adequately prepared. Ha! The joke's on you! I will turn your army to my own ends and USE IT TO DESTROY THE WORLD!!!...... Take that. Thanks for the review. (  
  
Salamandarin: University bites, it does (ouch!). Chocolate cookies for everyone! And coffee for anyone else? Thanks for the review!  
  
Shin-Ryu warrior: Indeed. I'll do my best to keep the updates at least regular, if not terribly fast. Thanks for dropping a line.  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: And you shall HAVE Kevin! .... Whoever said I didn't give the reviewers what they wanted? Thanks as always for the review.  
  
Dargon: Hawk? Break down and cry?! Not this Hawk! (At least, not yet. There's always time.) I figured Hawk would probably act a little strange, but in that kind of situation, I couldn't bog down the progress and neither could Hawk on the mission so back goes to one foot in front of the other. ^_^;;; 'Sides, I hate sap. Thanks for your review!  
  
Here we go! Thanks as usual to everyone; you're all a fantastic bunch of very special people (nods earnestly). Yes indeed. Hope you like this chapter, if not, well... (looks lost).. Coffee, anyone?  
  
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Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 31 - Land of the Midday Moon  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The Moonlight Forest, like many of their destinations, probably would have been a lot prettier if it weren't for the various creatures bent on their destruction frequenting it. Angela mentally added it to her growing list of potentially romantic destinations - once Mana was saved and the world was all nice and friendly again, that is. The wolves of the forest seemed to have impeccable timing for catching them by surprise, and seemed far more vicious than any they had encountered in the Altenan snowfields.  
  
The dust and fire settled from the latest skirmish, leaving all of them scratched up and a little bloodied from the pack of fiends. Without being asked, Duran raised his hand, calling up cure magic for each of them, one at a time. The Knight seemed to be becoming more comfortable with the concept of magic. Which was fortunate, because he was the only one among them with any healing ability. The appropriate application of herbs and other medicines could tide one over during battle, but for anything too serious, Wisp's magic was the way to go.  
  
"Wolves and werewolves everywhere! Mana isn't making this any easier on us by sending all the local wildlife crazy," Angela complained, trying to dust herself off, before giving up. Her Kingdom for a bath! .....Not that Altena was exactly hot property these days.....  
  
"I suppose this is a good thing," Duran reasoned, ever the optimist, still looking around in case of any further ambushes. "If we're having this much trouble navigating the forest, so too will the Beastmen."  
  
The Delvar had to resist the urge to blanch. "I somehow think the Beastmen would be a little more at home in their own forest. Luna must just be really powerful. Fairy, are you SURE we're going the right way?"  
  
"Absolutely," the Knight replied positively, once again reporting for the tiny coward - as usual hiding in his skull.  
  
Somehow, even though it supposedly came from the regrettably reliable Holyland immigrant, Angela still would have felt better if Hawk were the one to say that. Come to think of it.... "Hawk, what's up there?"  
  
"Well," he commented offhandedly, "I don't want to alarm everyone, but I think we're being followed."  
  
"WHAT?!" Duran was quick to have his hand on the hilt of his sword. "For how long?"  
  
"Relax," Hawk assured him. "I don't think he - or it - will attack just yet. Might not even be following us particularly..."  
  
"Not us particularly? Why else would anyone be following us in the middle of this forest?!" Angela demanded.  
  
"Maybe they were lured by the brilliance of your beauty, Angie."  
  
Choice A was to blush. Choice B was a potentially dangerous and life- ending spell. Choice C was to flirt and hopefully make Duran jealous. Choice D was for her cane and Hawk's head to have a re-introduction.  
  
Angela settled for Choice C, after lingering on Choice D for quite some time.  
  
"Oh, Hawk, you're too sweet," she gushed, grabbing on to his arm for a moment. "But you'll just have to tell them I only have eyes for you."  
  
"Is that sarcasm in your voice?" Duran asked. When the two looked over, the Knight suddenly blinked, looking slightly lost. "Oh, sorry, the Fairy was saying something. I'm just kind of used to reporting everything she says!" Looking puzzled a second later; Duran said to 'himself' once again, "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand, what exactly are you talking about?"  
  
That Fairy was trying to sabotage her efforts from the INSIDE? She thought not! No matter how much she acted like a brainless dolt she didn't seem to get anywhere, but that didn't also mean that she was willing to let the tiny glowing bug ruin whatever chances she did have! Dropping the thief's arm, she stalked ahead. "Well, let them follow. We have a Mana Stone to save and an Elemental to meet. Duran, tell that Fairy to put that useless power of hers to work and find us this Moonlight Tower."  
  
Hawk coughed again, getting everyone's attention. "I hate to ruin such a loving conversation, but is it, by any chance, that?"  
  
Looking up, the Princess felt foolish for at least the third time that day - looming in front of them, visible high above the trees and spotlighted by an ominous full moon, was the Moonlight Tower.  
  
She hadn't expected it to be..... quite so tall.  
  
"I really hope we won't have to climb that," she emphasised. "Really hope. Really."  
  
"Only one way to find out," Hawk replied, flashing her a quick smile.  
  
"I hate it when people say that," she muttered as Duran cautiously made his way towards the courtyard, now becoming visible through the grove of trees that preluded the massive structure.  
  
The three warriors paused before entering the open space. Given the last few altercations they had suffered near the Mana Stones, it seemed deceptively peaceful. Luna was perhaps quite powerful after all. Maybe this time, they just might get here BEFORE the people running around unsealing Mana Stones. Come to think of it, though, once they received the Elemental's blessing and left, what was there to say that they wouldn't come back? What a distressing thought.  
  
"Looks clear enough," Duran observed, walking into the clearing. "Hawk, what about that guy who was following us?"  
  
It seemed as though the Ranger had already armed himself, poised in a deceptively lazy but ready fashion. "I think he's caught up."  
  
"You!" A harsh, guttural voice ordered from the tree line. "You go no further!"  
  
Emerging from the forestry behind them came a regal looking Beastman. He was far bigger than any they had yet seen - even their muscular Knight took an unconscious step back in his presence.  
  
"You strangers tread on Holy Ground here. Deathjester said you would come. I am to kill you," he rasped out, covering his face as fur sprouted over his body, and he mutated into a fearsome looking silvery werewolf. Transformation completed, the mysterious stranger smiled at them, canines glinting in the moonlight.  
  
"What?! Wait! We're not here to cause any trouble!" Angela pleaded. Why the hell was she bothering? Beastmen had proved amazingly resilient to logic and pleas in the past that rivalled even that of Duran's - Goddess bless him - oblivious nature. Oh goody. Another fight on their hands. Three of them against one Beastman wasn't too bad, though, right?  
  
"Stop!" Another voice joined the scene. "Lugar! No do this! Is wrong!"  
  
Squinting, the Princess of Altena struggled to identify this vaguely familiar-looking Beastman who had just gatecrashed the scene. "Kevin?" He seemed different somehow, had he class-changed like - the thought still brought a shudder to her spine - Carlie?  
  
"So the prodigal son returns," the werewolf now identified as Lugar mused. He seemed far more articulate than the gentle half-Beastman - perhaps that was merely an unfortunate side effect of too much time spent with the high- priest's granddaughter. "You have nerve, Kevin, son of Beast King, to show your face here. You are a coward. You do not deserve the throne!"  
  
"Kevin does not want the throne! Kevin just wants to bring Karl back! But Lugar go no further!"  
  
"I will kill you and assume the throne myself!" Lugar shouted. It was as though the two weren't even listening to each other.  
  
"No more killing!" Kevin yelled.  
  
Recklessly, the Prince rushed the bigger Beastman with his bare fists- it wasn't hard to see the outcome. With an almost careless brush of his paw, Lugar sent Kevin sprawling, until the younger Beastmen landed, skull connecting with a stray rock with a sickening thud. As the supposed Prince of the Beast Kingom lay unmoving, Angela was still relieved to see the rise and fall of his chest - he was merely unconscious. There had been plenty of death in the past few days. She had no desire to see any more of it.  
  
"You are a poor, pathetic, weak fool. I will take your life here," Lugar announced, moving to stand over the unconscious half-breed.  
  
"Stop it!" Duran suddenly shouted, stepping forward.  
  
"Duran, what are you doing?" the Delvar hissed. It was NOT a good idea to be drawing the attention of a werewolf so mighty it just knocked aside a pretty big guy with hardly any effort!  
  
"If you're going to kill him, you'll have to go through us first!" With a flourish, the Forcenan drew his sword, its blade flashing in the moonlight.  
  
Duran's righteousness had decided to intervene at completely the wrong time. It had a bad habit of doing that.  
  
"Your choice, human. I'll kill you, then I'll kill the traitor." Lugar didn't seem at all worried by the fact he was outnumbered. The bad signs were just piling up here.  
  
The stand off lasted for at least a minute, until Duran took the initiative and ran at the Beastman, sword held high. Lugar sidestepped at an impossible speed, lashing out with his claws as he did so. Duran's shield and armour were all that saved him - the force of the blow still sent him reeling back, searching for his footing.  
  
"Duran!" Angela called out in concern. Well, she'd have to be making a point to stay well back out of the melee. Without armour, if she caught that she was finished.  
  
"Guess I'm taking in the close combat," Hawk sighed, flipping his short swords in his hands to readjust his grip. "Some cover fire, Angie, if you please?"  
  
"Right!" The Delvar took up a spell casting position while Duran and Lugar circled each other, the Knight a little more wary now. She began calling up Salamando's power, feeling it swell within her.  
  
Hawk was off and running, blades whirling in a flurry of movement as he reached the Beastman. Lugar was suddenly struggling to avoid each of the attacks in time, the Ranger's offensive relentless. Hawk's strategy was clear - no decisive blows, but if he could wear the opponent down while keeping him busy......  
  
Enraged, Lugar swiped at the thief, who ducked the blow by a hair's width. The two continued to tussel, Hawk dodging swipe after swipe, even managing to draw some blood from Lugar, before the Beastmen let out a mighty roar, lashing out with a powerful punch, catching a slightly surprised Hawk squarely in the chest.  
  
The Ranger was pushed back, dropping to a knee as he slid back to avoid crashing into any trees. With her ally clear, Angela took her moment, magical energy flaring from her fingertips. "FIRE BALL!"  
  
The orbs of fire raced from her, enveloping the Beastman. Hawk clutched at his chest, breathing ragged, while Duran, feeling slightly left out of the battle, pumped him full of cure magic. After a moment, the thief stood shakily, nodding his thanks.  
  
Lugar emerged from the blaze, sooty with singed fur, and now clearly angry. Grand, they hadn't stopped him yet, just made him fiercer. "Worthless humans! Die!"  
  
As the werewolf let out an inhuman scream, the three warriors were forced to drop to their knees, covering their ears. Forcing an eye open, Angela caught sight of the Beastman rising slightly into the air, glowing brightly. The light was blinding.... then, only mind-numbing pain. It was as though the sky and ground itself was shattering - the earth shook as a stinging force pummelled them mercilessly.  
  
Once the attack dissipated, the Delvar struggled to push herself off the ground, body feeling broken and weak. What the hell was that?! Through her blurred vision, she could see Duran braced against a rock, frantically pumping them all with cure magic, just so that they could stand enough to fight! Hawk was the first up - already battling with Lugar to keep him away as Angela regained her strength, Duran at last rejuvenating himself. He looked exhausted from all the spell casting. They'd have to take care not to get hit by that again - even with the blasted Fairy in his head, the Knight simply didn't have that kind of magical stamina. Rocking to her feet, Angela called up an array of Holy Balls to assist Hawk. "Holy Ball!" Yeah, like a half-hearted Holy Ball would do damage when a full-fledged fireball hadn't even scratched the guy. Something stronger then. Much stronger. "Okay, you asked for it! Hawk, move! DARK FORCE!"  
  
The Ranger leapt clear as spars of darkness pummelled Lugar. The Beastman faltered under the barrage. Surely Dark Force would be powerful enough....  
  
The dust cleared again, revealing a bruised and bloody but still very much active Lugar standing there, breathing haggard. "You humans..... you will die for this!" Roaring, he launched himself at the Delvar, claws fully outstretched.  
  
Well, she was dead. Now it was official.  
  
Or not. It seemed as though the Beastman had forgotten about Duran, with the Knight on the sidelines occupied with healing duty. Taking his opportunity and stepping in, Duran raised his sword, swinging down hard, blade cleaving through Lugar's shoulder. Eyes wide, the Beastman stopped in his tracks, sinking to his knees. Duran pulled the blade free, his own breathing nearly as heavy as that of the fallen Beastman.  
  
"Humans..... how could mere humans......," he whispered, dropping to the ground, blood beginning to pool around him.  
  
She was still alive. No matter how many times she cheated death, it still amazed her. "Duran, you saved me!" Angela squealed, clasping her hands together in adoration. Could this mean that at last she was getting somewhere with the Knight?  
  
"Hm? Oh, you're welcome, Princess." So much for that idea.  
  
Hawk was kneeling next to the wounded Beastman. "I doubt he'll survive these wounds. We should at least be honourable and give him a quick death."  
  
"No!" Out of nowhere, it seemed as though Kevin had regained consciousness, with remarkable timing. Leaping forward, the half-breed placed himself between the Navarrian and the fallen warrior. "No more killing!"  
  
"Kevin," Lugar coughed from behind him as the three backed away from the two. "Don't be.... weak."  
  
"Lugar! Lugar no die!"  
  
"He knows his time is up," Duran said, once again able to stand back and admire a warrior's honour, despite looking like he was about to collapse on his feet from casting cure magic at least ten times in the past hour. "We should all listen to his epitaph."  
  
"Kevin... son of Beast King.... I was jealous of your prestige. You had everything I wanted, worked so hard for, and you rejected it! Deathjester.... he used this against me. I see now. I am the one who was weak. But you must now be strong, in my place. Grow strong. Become a great heir. One day you will rule Beast Kingdom."  
  
"Lugar!" Kevin was shaking his head fervently. "Kevin no want throne. Lugar can have it! Lugar deserve it! Lugar strong, Kevin not. Live, Lugar!"  
  
"Can't we use any cure magic?" Angela asked, not entirely comfortable with helping a Beastman who had nearly killed them moments ago, but at the same time she was not entirely comfortable with the idea of standing by and doing nothing while Lugar died from wounds they inflicted, either.  
  
"Even if I had the strength, his wounds are still too severe," Duran reported mournfully. "If I had more experience, maybe...."  
  
"What about going directly to Wisp?" Hawk asked.  
  
The Knight appeared deep in thought, likely conversing with the Fairy again. After a moment, he shook his head sadly. "The Fairy regrets to inform us that once given, the Elementals' blessings are exclusive only to those they give them to. If it were one of us, Wisp would be able to intervene, but...."  
  
Angela cursed to herself. What was the point of having the blessings of the Elementals if you couldn't use them?  
  
"You all look so sad! Did I miss the party?" An unfamiliar voice entered the scene, accompanied moments later by an eclectic looking jester wearing an unusual mask. How many more gatecrashers were going to arrive at this scene?! Next thing they knew, Jagan would appear from the shadows! And why not Koren and Carlie while they were at it?!  
  
"Deathjester.... you fiend," Lugar rasped from where he lay, even as the life slowly drained from his body. "You're a trickster of the worst kind."  
  
Seeming to ignore the wounded warrior, the strange man, if he was that, hopped over near the edge of the fence of the courtyard. "Now, Lugar, it looks as though you have failed in your set task. I send you here to kill these people, and instead you're the one about to die! How incompetent you must be!"  
  
"If you're so competent, why didn't you take us on yourself, you coward!" Duran challenged, hand resting on the hilt of his sword again. Angela resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Duran's righteousness was looking set to get them into trouble again. Real smart, in their condition.  
  
"Hmm, you must be those troublemakers I've heard about," the stranger mused, hopping from foot to foot as he examined them. "Oh! And over there, isn't that Kevin, son of the Beast King? Helllloooo, Kevin!"  
  
The Prince had rivulets of tears running down his face, which he hurriedly wiped away, snarling at the intruder. "You! Is your fault Lugar is dying! Your fault Karl is dead!"  
  
For the first time, Deathjester seemed to actually listen to what they were saying. "Karl? Oh, that pup? Yes, well, his soul was quite tasty I'll have you know!"  
  
"You lie! Karl not be... Karl.."  
  
"Soul.... was tasty?" Angela began to feel nauseated. She'd only heard rumours in her magic studies, but was this man some kind of Necromancer? No, not a necromancer.... something worse. Something that ate souls. Something that ate death. She leant heavily on her crystal staff for support. "Who are you and what are you after?!"  
  
"Why, isn't that obvious?!" With no further ado, the stranger known as Deathjester laughed maniacally, leaping off towards the Moonlight Tower. "I so look forward to eating your souls one day! I'm sure they will be delicious!"  
  
Kevin swore after him, before a moan from Lugar distracted him as the wounded Beastman faded, lingering close to death.  
  
Duran, of course, was still thinking about the mission. "Is he... after the Mana Stone?"  
  
"But how would he unseal it?" Angela asked, more to herself than anyone else. "He didn't have anyone with him...." Eyes wide, she swivelled, staring in horror at the dying Beastman at their feet. "He's going to use Lugar's soul! We have to save him!"  
  
The Fairy finally emerged from hiding, apparently deciding that the situation needed her after all and it was nice and safe now. "It's too bad for even Wisp as he is now to handle if he could," the glowing insect fretted, wringing her hands desperately. "If only...."  
  
"May I be of assistance?"  
  
"No more gate crashers! No more surprises!" Angela screeched, putting her hands on her ears.  
  
A subtle cough and a soft glowing light made her look more closely. "Wait... Luna?"  
  
The Elemental of the Moon seemed to have a quiet and elegant demeanour, surrounded by an aura of strange yellow light. She floated just above them all, descending to be eye-level. Strangely, her light was not painful to look at, but soothing.  
  
"Luna, thank the Goddess you're here," the Fairy breathed a sigh of relief. "Your Stone is in grave danger! If we wish to save it, we need to save this Beastman, can you do anything?"  
  
"Please help Lugar," Kevin begged, awed expression at the sight of the Elemental dropping upon hearing the request.  
  
Mulling over this for a second, the Elemental hovered closely to the Beastman's face. Lugar's breathing was increasingly shallow, while Kevin watched by anxiously. Finally, Luna reported, "He is too far gone for me to heal his wounds, but I can save his soul."  
  
"Do it!" The Fairy ordered. Almost immediately, the courtyard was encompassed in a warm glowing light. When it faded, Lugar was gone and replaced with......  
  
"A baby?!" The Princess of Altena was understandably incredulous.  
  
"Beastman baby," Luna informed her proudly, like a mother introducing her child on its first day of school.  
  
Gurgling to himself, the reborn Lugar began to crawl away, heading back into the forest.  
  
"Hey, wait, where's he going?!" Angela panicked. She wasn't one for kids, but as cold-hearted as she was, she knew that those bloodthirsty woods they fought through earlier were NOT the ideal place for a defenceless child to be wandering. She herself couldn't believe she had wandered it fully armed!  
  
"Gah, not to worry," Kevin assured them, staring after the infant fondly. "Will wander off into forest, wolves will find and raise. Normal for Beastman."  
  
Which explained a lot, when they thought about it.  
  
"So, Luna....," Angela began, prompting the Fairy.  
  
"Oh, yes! Luna, I'm sure you already know why we're here. Will you help us?" The Fairy asked, clearly tired of the whole routine of meeting and greeting the Elementals by now and probably already planning their trip to find the last Mana Stone.  
  
Thinking carefully, Luna at last nodded. "I would never refuse the Goddess, so I would also never refuse her emissaries and champions. I will give you my strength."  
  
Angela coughed, stepping up.  
  
Luna blinked. "Yes, Angela of Altena?"  
  
Maybe Luna was powerful, but she didn't seem to be as bright as she first appeared, no pun intended. "This is usually where I get to learn some new magic to kill Koren.... ah, save Mana with?"  
  
Frowning, Luna at length shook her head. "I'm terribly sorry, but whilst my blessing will improve your power and endurance with magic, my magics cannot be used by traditional mages and sorceresses. My magic is quite powerful, but not for a Delvar to use."  
  
"WHAT?!" This was the only reason she was on this crazy quest! To get magic! And Duran too, but that was beside the point! The Elemental of the Moon was telling her that she wasn't good enough for her power?! When she had learnt the spells of six other Elementals?!  
  
"However, in the Goddess's chosen champions there is one who can benefit from my magic...."  
  
Blinking, Angela focused her eyes to see Luna..... hovering over a bewildered-looking Hawk?  
  
"HIM?! You have to be joking me!" Desert rats couldn't use magic!  
  
"Hush, Angela," the Fairy scolded.  
  
"You, Hawk of Navarre, are well-suited to use my magic, that of the moon. I imbue you with my power. Use it well." Closing her eyes, Luna vanished from sight as Hawk was surrounded with a soft glow. The Ranger opened his eyes a moment later, looking the most content he had in days.  
  
"Congratulations, Hawk," Duran offered, clapping the thief heartily on the back, as usual underestimating his own strength and sending Hawk stumbling for a couple of steps.  
  
"Uh, thanks," the Navarrian replied, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. He blinked, seeing a fuming Angela standing in front of him. "Um.... How's it going, Angie?"  
  
"Why is it that a lowly scumbag like you gets Luna's blessing when I don't?!" the Delvar demanded.  
  
"Angela, everyone has Luna's blessings, it's just that you can't use her spells," the Fairy interjected.  
  
"But why him?! He's a useless ladies-man-wanna-be!" she argued.  
  
"Not at all! Now I have magic, I'm sure I'll be hot property," Hawk assured her. "After all, if worked for you, didn't it Angie?"  
  
If the thief was using that kind of logic, magic had the opposite effect. She could have sworn Duran had given her an extra glance BEFORE she had earned her first spell with Wisp. That was a cursed gift if she ever saw one.  
  
Kevin coughed, breaking the moment. They had momentarily forgotten that the Beastman was even present. "Gah, hate to interrupt, but Deathjester...?"  
  
"The Mana Stone! We should go make sure!" Duran realised.  
  
Argument at least temporarily forgotten, the group hurried up the steps into the Moonlight Tower. The Mana Stone had better not be at the top....  
  
The Princess's fears were thankfully for nothing. The entire expansive first level of the Moonlight Tower was filled with a soft glow, reflective of Luna's power. The large stone emitted a steady and soothing hum. Tuning in to her magical senses, Angela was relieved to sense that the Stone was indeed safe, and Deathjester was nowhere to be seen. It was slightly reassuring, though, after their previous encounters, to find a Mana Stone still safe. Luna's power was indeed admirable.  
  
"Who was that masked man?" Hawk asked.  
  
Kevin shrugged. "Deathjester. No one too sure."  
  
The Fairy hovered around the stone, a picture of relief and overwhelming happiness that they'd been able to at least protect one Mana Stone. "It doesn't matter. Our work here is done for now. The Mana Stone of the Moon is safe. We shouldn't waste any time, and hurry on to Dryad's stone - the Mana Stone of Wood. Then we can go to the Holyland, get the Mana Sword and greet the Goddess, and Mana will be safe again!" The Fairy seemed to be babbling. Personally, Angela didn't see how getting a hold of the legendary sword would actually save Mana, but one generally didn't try and question the logic of the tiny deity.  
  
With lighter hearts, they made their way back outside the ominous tower, Kevin following them to gate. In the courtyard, the heir to the Beast Kingdom paused, lingering to stare up at the monolithic structure. "Kevin will become strong, Lugar! Kevin be strong so that one day, Lugar can become next Beast King!"  
  
Generally not too good to question the logic of Beastmen, either. "What are you going to do now, Kevin?" Duran asked kindly.  
  
"Gah, will go become stronger," Kevin repeated himself. "Will go the Beast Kingdom, meet Beast King. Karl not be brought back. Kevin become strong in Karl's and Lugar's place."  
  
Nodding, Duran patted the gentle Beastman on the shoulder. "I wish you luck. I'm sure you will become a great heir."  
  
"Thank you for help. Forest is quiet now. Journey back to Mintos safe." With that, Kevin left as quickly as he had come, disappearing into the dark forest.  
  
Angela sighed, grasping her cane and attempting to dust herself off again. The idea of a walk back to Mintos now was not a pleasant one - she just wanted to sleep. What a mess they were. The three champions of Mana covered in dirt, twigs in their hair and caked with blood. The Goddess must be crazy.  
  
Then there was the fact that now, she had to contend with a desert rat that could use magic? Come to think of it, the tales she's heard of Luna's crazy style of magic were not at all encouraging to imagine what kind of spells Hawk might now be able to cast.  
  
They were all doomed.  
  
_____________________  
  
Feedback is always appreciated! Penguins and pandas almost certainly evolved from the same ancestor. I have cheese! I will go eat my cheese (and the generously donated cat food). Next chapter might be a little late, though I hope not. Thanks! 


	32. 101 Ways to Misuse Your Magic

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for.. Oh look, a butterfly!  
  
Author's note: I FINALLY updated! Aren't you proud of me? Well, I'm almightily proud of myself, despite having taken quite possibly the longest time yet to post a chapter. This is probably mostly because I was trying to fit in Dryad's introduction and the Island of Oblivion into this chapter. Didn't happen. The chapter is just too long - at least some small compensation! Oh, and there's that piddling little thing about being in the middle of my finals at the moment. An unimportant detail. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it (which was somewhere between the vicinity of cake and caffeine.)  
  
Oh, and another piece of news for anyone who might be interested - figure a couple of you might be fans of Squaresoft - Square pictures is releasing another 3D film: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children straight to DVD next year! Full with super-high-resolution Cloud and Sephiroth and everything! It looks awesome. Sorry, I just had to share that with someone before I EXPLODED like a grain silo! Grain and cheese and cows everywhere!  
  
Response to the Reviewers! (Those of you patient enough to stay this long! Kudos to you! When I take over the world, I will spare your lives. ^.^ And maybe even give you positions of power because you deserve it so. ):  
  
Mig-31: Who is this 'someone' you speak of? (cough cough). Sorry for the wait, I was clinically dead for a few weeks until my doppleganger could fully copy my brain and continue with the project. Wow, this has a soundtrack now. Pretty cool. Thanks!  
  
Project Genesis: Yes! Write a fic of your own! Flood the SD3 section! Flood it! And welcome to this fanbase. I'm biased, but I think it's the best there is. ;)  
  
ThunDaGa: 1. Thanks. 2. That does not surprise me, but thanks for pointing it out. :P 3. Thank you. 4. Probably, but then, it's always night in the Moonlight Forest and Kevin isn't always a Beastman there. 5. Thank you very much. 6. That's because I stuff pigeons into my oven as a sacrifice. ;)  
  
WaterDragonerS: I like the idea! Write it! CHEESE! I love all of you so. (Cries tears of joy.)  
  
Tramontana Keeper: That's fine, thanks very much for dropping a line. Get some sleep. And beat school into submission. I recommend explosives.  
  
TheOneAndOnlyT: I don't sleep, that's how! This is all thanks to my good friend, caffeine. Thanks very much! Duran is probably a bit dense because I have a prejudice against broad swordsmen. ^_^;;  
  
Lone Ronin: I couldn't stand fighting Lugar either! I remembered the Sazuku Sky Dance vividly, so that's why I put it in, I guess. Lol, 'thought' indeed. Thanks for the review! Hope you like this chapter.  
  
Shin-Ryu Warrior: Thanks!  
  
Valon Sergki: Another new reviewer, hello! Scared shitless indeed.  
  
Rise&Shine: New reviewer, welcome! I was considering letting Angela level up her spells early, or invent some new ones, but I already take so many liberties with this story ^_^;;. It's a good thought though! Hmmm.. Thanks for your review!  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: If you like the moon, I recommend www.rathergood.com. Craziest song ever dedicated to the moon. Lugar's move is called the Sazuku Sky Dance. Chocolate is great! Thank you! (I get so much food from this story, I might just live until Christmas.)  
  
Wingnut: Choice D sounded like fun too, but I think I had to keep the story a-rolling. I had plenty of fun tangents in this chapter as it is ^_^;;. Please, I wish to know the theory of dragon evolution! (I've wasted too much time trying to explain the platypus and kangaroo already!) I missed that revolution too. There there, there there.  
  
Tom Gyllhamn: Well, parades are nice maybe? (Laughs) Wow, that's some pretty high praise there. (Head explodes). Thanks for your review! Always makes me laugh.  
  
Freeloader1: That's very considerate. Until you discover I replaced your bokken with a cheese shinai. ;) All bow to the power of subtitled anime! Bow! Yeah, Kevin would probably be Monk. Seeing as he only has a grand total of about fifteen lines in over thirty chapters though, people will have to forgive me for not going to the trouble of mentioning it. ;) Thanks as always for your review!  
  
Just Call Me Angels: Hawk/Angela development is probably coming after the Mana Holyland, or possibly in it, I'll see how I go. Darn it, now you have ME thinking what Duran and Hawk would look like dressed as women! Thought- recording machines. I like. Thanks for your review!  
  
Slash the Ironman: I need to track down this army of darkness factory of yours before you DO find a good horde-leader! Ack! Hawk has a couple of magic spells, I guess. Not many. Mostly status spells and techniques. Desperate people eat cat food! After all, it's good enough for cats! Thanks very much for letting me live, hope you enjoy the chapter!  
  
Frickin Evil Poptart: That he is. That he is.  
  
Truewind: NOOO! True in a rut? That's horrible! Hawk with magic is going to be a lot of fun indeed.. *grins*. I guess that's probably why I dislike Kevin as well. Thanks as usual for your highly intelligent review, begone with writer's block so we can read some more of Seeds of Mana!  
  
Lj7: Haven't decided. Um, I mean - Surprise surprise!  
  
Kurai: Here, you can have some of my cheese and chocolate. (Both delicious, but somehow a sickening combination...) Sazuku Sky Dance. Painful. Yes. Thanks for your review!  
  
^_^: Sweet, sweet revenge. Ok! 'They were all doomed'. Whee!  
  
Wings of Lead: I recently discovered these! Thank you! I'm happy if you liked the fanart, I haven't thought about posting it anywhere, didn't really think it was good enough, I want to make my own website eventually I suppose. If anyone wants a copy, I guess they can E-Mail and ask, and I'll be happy to accommodate. Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Nightmares Hell Queen: I thought I wrote Lugar talking fairly normally, maybe even a little proper! (shrugs). I guess that I WAS asleep for most of the chapter. Thanks for your review! See ya.  
  
Tada! Well, that's MORE than enough from me, here's the chapter, Goddess knows you've waited long enough for it. (Pre-amble included).  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 32 - 101 Ways to Misuse Your Magic  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The next morning, or quite possibly afternoon - it was difficult to judge inside a forest of eternal night - found Angela of Altena in Moonlight City Mintos, attempting to give herself a shower using Undine's power, desperately trying to scrub off nearly five days' accumulated grime. It wasn't terribly easy, seeing as Undine seemed to have difficulty producing anything other than freezing cold water. Maybe Salamando could help?  
  
"Oi, Angie!"  
  
The Princess shrieked, cutting the shower short and tugging on her still- damp dress. Why couldn't any of the Elementals have any cleaning spells? "HAWK! PERVERT! FIRE BALL!"  
  
Considering she hadn't even bothered aiming the spell, or in fact hadn't even pinpointed the thief's location, the string of Navarrian curses she heard indicated she'd come surprisingly close. "I just wanted to let you know we're leaving soon!"  
  
The Ranger finally revealed himself, emerging through the trees, slightly singed. Come to think of it, it was a lucky thing she hadn't set the forest on fire. That'd REALLY win some support from the Beastmen.  
  
"Liar!"  
  
"I swear, I didn't see anything!"  
  
Relenting, the Delvar picked up her staff, running a hand through her damp hair. What it took to get an uninterrupted shower around here.... "Fairy getting impatient is she?"  
  
'Yes!'  
  
Angela spasmed at the sound of the voice inside her head. 'Ack! Out, out! When did you sneak in there, anyway?!'  
  
'Last night, while you were sleeping,' the tiny deity reported.  
  
'$^%**$@!!!! Sneaky little piece of trash!'  
  
"Duran's going to be waiting for us with Booskaboo," Hawk informed her casually. "Mana Stone of Wood awaits!"  
  
"But I haven't had breakfast yet!" she argued.  
  
"On that note, have you lost some weight?" the Ranger asked.  
  
Angela felt her face reddening with fury. "You DID peek! PERVERT!" She raised the crystal rod high above her head threateningly.  
  
The thief smiled and waved cheerily, ducking the swipe of the cane with practiced ease. Angela just sighed as he darted ahead. "It's a compliment, Angie! Remember, be at the beach as soon as possible!"  
  
Somewhere inside her head, the Fairy was still busy making remarks. 'He's putting on act, you know.'  
  
Snapping, the Princess replied, 'Of course I know! You don't have to read minds to know that, insect, that whole thing with Jessica was just days ago! And why don't you stay in Duran's head already?!'  
  
'Duran went down to the beach to have a bath!' she wailed.  
  
'The beach? Why bother doing that? I could have given him one!' That was met with silence. Suddenly realising the implications of her words, the Princess began to blush deeply.  
  
"Okay, that does it, I can't stand it in there either! Such dirty thoughts! Only the pure-minded should enter the Mana Holyland!" The Fairy huffed, rushing from Angela's head.  
  
Waving the insect away, Angela ran a hand through her hair in a half- hearted attempt to neaten it. What she'd do for a mirror - she'd hate to see how many sticks and leaves were probably stuck in it, if Riesz saw her now she'd laugh her all the way back to Altena! A Princess was always supposed to be well-groomed and refined, and well... though she never exactly had the refined part down, she was a natural beauty! All of it going to waste on an oblivious Knight and a perverted thief, too. Enough of this place. Maybe the elves actually had proper bathing facilities.  
  
Fat chance. "Hurry it up, Fairy, you don't want Booskaboo to leave without us, do you?"  
  
"Well now that you've finished preening....."  
  
"This is not preening! I'll have you know I'm making all sorts of concessions for this stupid quest of yours!"  
  
"I keep telling you - saving Mana isn't stupid!"  
  
"Whatever." The beach was up ahead, and sure enough, Hawk and Duran were already waiting there with the oversized turtle. Duran seemed to be feeding it some candy. The creature seemed to be developing something of a taste, if not an addiction, to the stuff. If it kept up at this rate travelling using Booskaboo would be getting more expensive than using a ship.  
  
They clambered aboard the turtle and pushed off, travelling through the better part of what she originally thought was the day, but turned out to be night when there was no sunlight forthcoming after leaving Moonlight City Mintos behind .... The Princess was going to have some serious turtle- lag by the time they reached the Forest of Wonder.  
  
The sun rose, Angela woke up from a nap sometime mid-morning, and they were still in the middle of the ocean, and quite frankly, it was getting boring, especially seeing as the Fairy tried to use the long periods of silence to lecture them on the PROPER ways of Mana, as if perhaps their own applications of morals were somehow inferior. It didn't make it much better that most of that seemed to be directed at her and Hawk. "We're not there YET? What's taking us so long?" Angela complained, interrupting the Fairy from her explanation of proper temple etiquette.  
  
"Booskaboo seems to be moving a little more slowly today," Duran replied, glancing down and patting its shell.  
  
"Probably put on weight from all the chocolate," Hawk snickered.  
  
"Well this is taking too long. How can we lighten the load?" the Delvar complained.  
  
"Angie, please don't look at me like that."  
  
"Wait! I think I see land over there!" Duran called.  
  
"Just in time." The thief was busy edging away from her.  
  
"At LAST! I didn't think I could stand much more of this boring prattling!"  
  
"You should care about these things! Most people have tried to live GOOD lives in the hopes of being blessed by the Mana Goddess, and you get to go the Holyland and you won't even change your ways!" the Fairy huffed, grumpily disappearing into Duran's head, probably in a wasted attempt to snub them.  
  
Booskaboo crashed up onto the tranquil beach - half of their candy supplies later he finally left again, leaving them on a quiet and tranquil beach, fringed by what looked like....  
  
"Lampflowers," Hawk informed them. "The Forest of Wonder is deeper inland, but supposedly Lampflower forest, where the elves live, precedes it to stop people from wandering into the region of the Mana Stone by accident."  
  
"I fail to see how it could possibly achieve that task," Angela blanched, swatting the harmless nearby shrub as they made their way from the beach into the foliage.  
  
Hawk shrugged as well. "Who knows? Maybe they're magical?"  
  
"Silly Pervert Man! That not why!"  
  
They weren't even surprised this time when Carlie turned up out of nowhere once again - having somewhere along the line resigned themselves to their fate of forever being stalked by the young morningstar-wielding girl.  
  
"Carlie? What are YOU doing here?" Angela asked, edging away as she was assaulted with the recollection of pushing the young girl off Booskaboo. Lucky for her, the child's memory didn't seem as acute as her own.  
  
"Carlie wash up on beach here couple of days ago! But big rock keep Carlie from entrance until today! Carlie showed rock good!"  
  
"The Fairy says that it was probably put up by Dryad to keep people out. If it's gone, Dryad must be in trouble," Duran whispered.  
  
"Rock regret ever meeting Carlie!"  
  
"What kind of Elemental's best defence is a ROCK?" Angela groaned, getting a sinking feeling already about Dryad. The armies of Rolante and its sheer cliffs and high-altitude winds couldn't protect THAT Mana Stone so what use did a ROCK have against the forces of darkness?  
  
"Well, it kept Carlie out," Hawk pointed out.  
  
"And I hate it for that," she retorted, brazenly walking ahead into the path between the glowing lampflowers, to be confronted by an intersection. Three more paths. Grand.  
  
"Which way is it to that Elf City Dior, Fairy?" Duran asked aloud. After a long moment, he appeared slightly cross. "She doesn't know."  
  
"I keep telling you, that insect is entirely USELESS. I suppose I'm going to have to make the executive decisions around here. I think we should go..... that way," Angela declared, whirling and pointing to the left.  
  
"Why do I get the sensation that was based entirely on a random guess?" Hawk drawled.  
  
"It's based on more than that of course! I'm reading the distinct magical signatures of the forest! REAL magicians can do that, you know," she scoffed.  
  
"Do you get the feeling that she might be a little bitter about the thing with Luna?" Duran whispered to Hawk, clearly having no clue as to the scope of your average human's hearing.  
  
"Careful what you say, you don't want to set off her temper, ESPECIALLY when she's jealous," the Ranger whispered back.  
  
"FIRE BALL!"  
  
Hawk ducked, the spell going past him and dissipating into nothingness before it could set alight the entire lampflower forest. "If anything, I think her temper has grown even shorter since she got Salamando's power."  
  
The fools weren't even worth a Holy Ball. Storming ahead, Angela made her way into the next clearing.... to be greeted by another intersection. Leading the way for the rest of the party, she went into the next, and the next, and the next. There was nothing in this stupid Forest! Nothing but Lampflowers!  
  
"Angie, watch out!" Hawk yelled unexpectedly, shoving her out of the way, straight into a giant lampflower bush. A primitive arrow disappeared into the foliage, narrowly missing the Princess.  
  
Duran shouted out a warning. "Someone's firing arrows at us!"  
  
Well, duh.  
  
Carlie displayed a rare moment of usefulness. "HOLY BALL! Ha! Take that Funny Furry Man!"  
  
Hawk went and inspected their attacker that had collapsed onto the ground from the full fury of a suprisingly powerful Holy Ball. "Looks like a Chobit. We're lucky it wasn't a Robin Hood, otherwise it might have been quick enough to get off more than one arrow." How a desert rat seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of flora and fauna was a mystery for them to ponder another time.  
  
Carlie was still enjoying her smiting of the opposition. "Carlie go boom- boom good, yes? Carlie save everyone, didn't she, Friend Duran?"  
  
The Knight was busy patting the young blonde girl on the head, who was currently happily hugging his leg, looking like he'd really rather have a lot more space between himself and a magic-wielding Carlie than was present. "You did well, Carlie, thank you very much."  
  
It seemed in the meantime, though, that everyone had forgotten about the Delvar who had been shoved rather roughly into the bushes, and was none too happy about it. "HAWK!"  
  
Duran stepped back, pulling Carlie with him, by now well-aware of the fate about to befall his comrade, and not wanting to be in the firing line.  
  
Hawk, seeing imminent death approach him in the form of a very angry Princess, seemed to panic and react according, holding out his hands in reflex. Hands which a moment later were glowing with a familiar yellow light..... that was starting to envelope Angela.  
  
"Wha-"  
  
The Delvar's cry was cut short as she felt herself.... shrinking?  
  
Angela had made the fatal mistake of forgetting that their resident desert rat had recently acquired magic.  
  
Several moments later, as a cloud of bizarre yellow smoke dissipated, Princess had been replaced by a purple rabite. The Fairy zoomed out of Duran's head at all of the commotion, and promptly started pointing and laughing. Duran was looking a little dumbfounded. Carlie seemed deeply interested in something in the shrubs over to their left.  
  
Hawk, on the other hand, was busy staring at his hands in a sort of wonder. "Did I do that? That's kind of cool."  
  
Rabite-Angela was hopping up and down in a mad fury, attempting to express her feelings but having no true means to do so other than biting Hawk's leg and unwilling to lower herself to doing so. This was disgraceful! She had been transformed into the most derogatory of existences!  
  
The Fairy, as usual reading her thoughts, commented, "At least he didn't change you into a mushboom or lullabud."  
  
The Delvar didn't consider herself below leaping up into the air to take a snap at the Fairy, but was interrupted by none other than Carlie. The young girl, having been distracted by something as fascinating as a uniquely coloured piece of grass, had naturally missed the entire exchange and had happened back upon the trio-now-duo to discover the cutest-looking rabite she'd ever seen! "CUTE RABITE! CARLIE WANNA HUG!" The young priestess quickly snatched up the horrified transformed Princess and squeezed her hard.  
  
Duran seemed impressed. "What was that, Hawk?"  
  
The thief merely shrugged. "Luna's magic, I guess. Body Changing. Must be in the heritage of the Beastmen or something."  
  
Couldn't..... breathe..... Stupid Fairy just floating there laughing..... Hawk and Duran just CASUALLY discussing magic while she was being suffocated by one of the most dangerous creatures they'd ever encountered?! When she was full-size again.....!  
  
"Friend Duran, can Carlie keep?"  
  
The purple rabite glared at the Knight and Ranger, just DARING them to try it. "Rabites can be dangerous, Carlie. We should probably let this one go, and let Hawk change her back."  
  
Carlie started sniffing, but dropped Angela unceremoniously onto the ground. "Friend Duran right. Carlie will miss Cute Rabite! Come visit Carlie whenever Cute Rabite can!"  
  
Angela put as much distance as humanly - or rabitely - possible between herself and the overbearing child. She desperately pitied any pets the high-priest's granddaughter might ever acquire.  
  
"I wonder if I can use this spell to turn rabites into cute girls that would try and bite me?" Hawk wondered to himself.  
  
"You'd better change the Princess back, Hawk," Duran advised. "We can't afford any delays if Dryad is in trouble."  
  
"Are you kidding, change her back? She'll KILL me!" Hawk protested.  
  
"He has a point, Fairy," Duran said to the Fairy, shrugging.  
  
"As much as I am enjoying this, you will have to change her back. Duran and I will protect you, we promise!" The Fairy assured him, as though the promise of her useless protection was actually worth something.  
  
That aside, Hawk still didn't look convinced that either Duran or the Fairy would step between him and an enraged Angela. Finaly, twitching his hands guilitily, he admitted, ".....Actually, the truth is.... I'm not quite sure how."  
  
WHAT?! She was going to be stuck as rabite for the REST OF HER LIFE because an incompetant desert rat had used a spell he knew nothing about?!  
  
"But..... you cast it, didn't you?" Duran asked unbelievingly.  
  
"Kind of by accident," the thief confessed. "I'm not used to being able to use any real forms of actual magic, Luna only gave me a really basic knowledge and I didn't really know what exactly the spell would do. I mean, I think Navarrians had their own brand of magic a long long time ago but.... Well, Angie makes a very cute rabite anyway, don't you agree?"  
  
'Angie' was beginning to consider lowering herself to biting Hawk's leg.  
  
"Can you at least try?" Duran asked, squatting to look the glaring Angela in the eye. "Though you're right, she DOES make a cute rabite...."  
  
She was torn between being chafed that she had to become a RABITE before Duran would comment on her as cute, or thrilled that he had at least said it.  
  
"I don't think so!" The Fairy announced. "Who knows what she could change into next if Hawk gets it wrong? Maybe something really dangerous! I'd rather leave her as a rabite in case."  
  
The Knight scratched his head, clearly stumped. Carlie was off chasing a butterfly for the time being, so they could hardly ask her, though no one really expected that she'd be of any real help anyhow. "What about if we wait for the spell to wear off?" he suggested.  
  
The Fairy shook her head again. "Given how much magic Hawk poured into the spell, that could take days." At least this meant she wasn't stuck as a rabite for the rest of her life. Not that this made her any less livid. "Maybe.... The only way to cancel one status spell is with another, more powerful status spell."  
  
There was a brief silence at this. Duran had cure magic but nothing else, and if Hawk could use any other status spells or herbs he probably didn't have any more powerful than the spell he had just cast.  
  
The thief perked up. "The Chibikko hammer!" The Ranger pulled it out of one of his many hidden and space-defying pockets - so that was where it had gone. Kneeling down, he tapped the rabite on the head. Angela felt herself shrinking further..... but she was human again! A very small human, but it was a step up from rabite. She could kiss the Fairy for that! Heck, she might even kiss Hawk right before she strangled him. And she'd probably kiss Duran just for the sake of it.  
  
"Angie, before I make you big again, you have to promise not to kill me," he insisted. "You can punish me in private later if you want, but no killing."  
  
The Ranger either had nerves of steel, or didn't quite know when to shut up. Angela gritted her teeth and nodded her head. She wanted to be full- size again before Carlie discovered 'Chibi Slutty Girl'. Sure, she wouldn't kill Hawk.... she'd just hurt him. A lot.  
  
Hawk tapped her on the head with the full-sized Chibbiko hammer again, which looked a lot scarier when you were only a couple of inches tall. A puff of smoke later, Angela was full-sized again, and very angry.  
  
"EAT CANE, SCUMBAG!" She yelled, holding her crystal rod high in the air, before being brutally disappointed that Hawk hadn't trusted her word and had instead put as much distance between himself and the homocidal Princess as he could without leaving the clearing. "I mean.... Hawk, honey, come here, I want to 'congratulate' you for your first spell."  
  
"No way, I'm not falling for that!"  
  
"Oh, Slutty Girl back! Where go now?" Carlie asked, returning clutching a butterfly in her right hand. No one was even going to try and free the poor creature.  
  
"We're GOING to find Elf City Dior, if any of you bothered to remember! Now, lets keep going before Hawk decides to try his hand at magic again!" She was going to have to make up some sort of ward against some status spells if the thief was going to randomly use outbursts of Lunar magic. She hated to imagine what might happen if he hit her with a Crazy Spell. Being a rabite for ten minutes was embarrassing enough. "This way."  
  
"I thought we already went that way," the Fairy sighed, disappointed that the fun was over.  
  
Neither Duran nor Hawk seemed willing to cross the Princess in the Fairy's favour at this point in time, so the complaint was met with silence as she stormed ahead along into the next path, blasting away a surprised Chobit. The trio of weary warriors, accompanied by a bumbling high priest's granddaughter, continued to make their way through the forest thus, encountering intersection after intersection, each looking the same as the last. Many random guesses later, Angela admitted to herself that it was time to accept defeat as gracefully as possible.  
  
"STUPID FOREST! How are we supposed to find Elf City Dior in this place!"  
  
"I knew it! You're lost!" Hawk announced triumphantly, then shrinking back slightly as he realised that might not have been the best thing to say around a very pissed off Delvar.  
  
"Carlie know how to find way!"  
  
"Why didn't you say that SOONER?" Angela asked, exasperated, turning on the tyke and trying to resist the urge to shake the annoying tag-along until she grew the brains EXPECTED of a fifteen-year old.  
  
The pink-clad girl pouted. "Slutty Girl no ask Carlie, so Carlie no tell."  
  
Exasperated, the Princess relented. "Fine, which way is it Carlie?" Asking Carlie for help was crushing whatever of her pride still remained intact after the past week, or even day.  
  
"You no ask Carlie NICELY, so Carlie no tell."  
  
"You little wench, you'll-" she fell short as she saw Duran's stern glance, telling her with nothing more than his facial expression to be nice. Dammit, she just couldn't say no to those eyes.... Sweetening her tone, she amended, "Carlie, sweetie, could you please show us how to get to the Elf City?"  
  
"Nyaaa! Slutty Girl stupid!" Think nice thoughts, nice thoughts only, she repeated in her head. Think about killing Koren, that'd make her feel better. "Lampieflowers show way! Lampieflowers go pretty pink at night to show path! Carlie know this! Carlie told long ago!"  
  
Well, at least, seeing as they'd wasted most of the day wandering the forest, they didn't have long to wait. "You could have - I mean, thank you, Carlie." Why must the Goddess curse her so?  
  
There was a prolonged, uncomfortable silence. "Well, what now?" Duran asked.  
  
"We wait," the Fairy advised. "Sundown is only in a couple of minutes."  
  
More silence. Hawk started whistling.  
  
"Slutty Girl, Friend Duran and Pervert Man going to help Carlie find Heath now?" Carlie asked, taking advantage of the temporary lull in distractions. "Carlie help, so help Carlie!"  
  
"We'll think about it, Carlie," Duran replied edgily. As if saving the world could measure against to finding a lone priest crazy enough to befriend this child.  
  
"NO THINK ABOUT! HELP CARLIE FIND HEATH!"  
  
"Oh, look, sundown! Let's go!" Angela announced hurriedly.  
  
"It's only just sundown, Angela," the Fairy blanched.  
  
"I thought I saw a tinge of pink on that one over there," Hawk interrupted, equally eager to avoid the violent tantrum. "Good enough for me!"  
  
Fortunately, as the sun set, the pink because a little more obvious, and now passing through the Lampflower Forest wasn't a chore at all, minus a couple more close calls with the irritating local wildlife. It was nigh humiliating to see how quickly they were passing into new territory after CARLIE'S advice, of all people - Elf City Dior was just ahead! No one dared say anything, even as they passed from the forest into the dark city; well, it was more of a village than a true city, but either way....  
  
"No one looks too friendly around here," Hawk observed warily, elves scattering in their wake. Not that the Princess had ever seen an elf before, but it was the only logical conclusion.  
  
"I remember Jose telling me once that there was a war between the elves and humans long ago. I suppose it's to be expected. But it'll be okay I'm sure, seeing as we have the irritating little gnat with us."  
  
"CARLIE NOT A GNAT! MEET CARLIE'S FRIEND!" The child hefted her morningstar threateningly.  
  
Angela rolled her eyes. Somehow it wasn't surprising that the tyke had become used to being associated with gnats. "I meant the FAIRY."  
  
"Oh. Shiny Insect is.... gnat?" The young girl seemed amazed by this revelation.  
  
"Angela," the Fairy growled, sitting on Duran's shoulder, though still doing her best to remain hidden from the prying eyes of nervous elves. Duran attempted to approach a couple, presumably to ask them information, but they had run indoors before he'd even come close.  
  
"How are we supposed to find out any information if they won't talk to us?" Duran complained.  
  
"At least they're not attacking us," Hawk intoned quietly.  
  
Putting her hands on her hips, the Pirncess declared, "It's simple! We'll just go talk to their leader, show off the Fairy and they're sure to tell us the way to the Mana Stone!"  
  
"Ba doom boom de boom," Carlie sang happily to herself.  
  
"And how exactly do you plan on finding the Fairy King?" the Fairy sniped.  
  
"Well, he's the King of Fairies, shouldn't YOU know where he is?" the Delvar retorted.  
  
"No! That's entirely a figure of speech!"  
  
"A figure of speech of what?"  
  
"Angela!"  
  
"Fine, fine, we'll just find the biggest house. Whoever is in charge will live in the biggest house!"  
  
"Spoken like a true spoilt Princess," Hawk sniggered. He quietened down when a fierce glare was directed towards him. The thief's apparent recent lack of any form of self-preservation instinct was becoming annoying.  
  
The biggest house wasn't difficult to find - most of the elves lived in simple dwellings that couldn't possibly have been comprised of more than a few rooms, so the Fairy King's house stuck out painfully. Pushing open the door, Angela directed a confident grin back at her tired companions. "Told you so."  
  
The livery inside certainly confirmed their suspicions - an elderly elf, with a long beard and impressively thick eyebrows that rivalled even that of the High Priest of Wendel, was the rest of the proof they needed. "Are you the Fairy King?" Duran asked, bowing respectfully.  
  
The elf stirred, looking at them. "Ah, the Fairy-bearers arrive."  
  
It was downright insulting that most of these old sages just called them the 'Fairy bearers', rather than the 'Mana Heroes' or at least 'Group of Misfits That Will Save the World'.  
  
"Please sir," the Fairy said, floating into plain view from hiding behind Duran. "The Mana Stone of Wood may be in peril. How can we find Dryad?"  
  
The elderly elf didn't seem to be paying any attention to them, though. "Is that.... is that you, young Carlie? Impossible."  
  
WHAT? They knew Carlie here TOO? The kid was better travelled than Hawk!  
  
"Oldie Man know Carlie?" The pink-clad girl ran forward in front of them. "Carlie never been here! How?!"  
  
"I always knew this day would come...." They probably prophesised it as their apocalypse, Angela thought to herself, barely suppressing a snigger as the Fairy directed a stern gaze in her direction. "You have been here before, Carlie, long ago. You were born here. You don't remember?"  
  
WHAT?! That explained how the wretched child knew about the Lampflowers, but BORN in Elf City Dior? Humans weren't allowed here! That must mean.......  
  
"Nope," Carlie confirmed, still rocking back and forth happily from foot to foot.  
  
"Your mother and father, Leroy and Shayla.... it's been so long since I've even thought of them..... Your father was a human, young Carlie, and when he and your mother met by chance, they fell in love. Such a sad story...."  
  
"Hey, this doesn't have anything to do with the Mana Stone, old man Fairy King!" Angela interrupted, becoming impatient.  
  
"Shush, Angela!" the Fairy hissed. Sighing, the Princess stepped back, letting the old man ramble as he pleased. She should have figured the tiny deity would be a sucker for sad stories...  
  
Pulling her attention back to the prolonged conversation, she noticed Carlie had stopped rocking back and forth at some point, and her eyes were growing dangerously big. This was a potential tantrum of devastating proportions brewing.... "Not long after you were born, Shayla fell ill. Her love affair cost her life, and your father died of grief soon after. Knowing that their time was drawing to a close, they left you to be found by the Priest of Light, Heath, who raised you..... but now you've come back here, after so very long...."  
  
So the child was half-elf! That explained her puny size and talent for magic..... not to mention her lack of reasonable grammar skills. It still didn't account for the girl's warped personality, but....  
  
The fifteen-year-old in question stood there, tears welling in her dangerously large blue eyes, for a long moment. Suddenly, she yelled out, "NO! OLDIE MAN LIE!" With no further words, Carlie ran from the room, knocking over half of the furniture in the process.  
  
Sighing, Hawk ran a hand through his hair. "Well, that went well. Can we find how to get to the Mana Stone now?"  
  
"You're both so insensitive!" The Fairy huffed, looking as though she was trying to wipe some tears away from her eyes as well.  
  
"Yeah yeah, heard it all before. Well, Old Man?" Angela urged.  
  
Shaking his head sadly, the Fairy King seemed deep in thought. "Such a sad story...."  
  
What WAS it with everyone? "It's going to be a REALLY sad story if we can't find Dryad and save the Mana Stone of Wood!"  
  
Somehow, this seemed to at last grab the elderly sage's attention. "Ah, so the Fairy-bearers have arrived."  
  
What did one have to do to get a hold of a sage who WASN'T half-senile? "Yes, and we'd like to know how to get to the Mana Stone! Dryad could be in danger!" Angela huffed. Not that she particularly cared if Dryad was in danger, but the sooner they found the eighth Elemental the sooner she could greet the Goddess, kill Koren, go home, and never see Carlie ever again.  
  
"The Mana Stone... With the blessing of Luna, the path to the south by the statue of the Mana Goddess will open your way into the Forest of Wonder. Dryad, in danger of losing her Mana Stone.... Such a sad story...."  
  
"Got it, south, statue, Luna. Let's get out of here!" Angela announced, heading out of the house, Hawk following and Duran rushing to catch up after hurriedly bestowing some forms of courtesy thanks to the Elf leader. Fortunately, outside, Carlie was nowhere to be seen. Probably out destroying Lampflower forest. If the local wildlife knew what was good for it, it would probably leave her alone. At least she wasn't here, bothering them. "Well, are we going?"  
  
"Why so suddenly intent?" the Fairy asked. "I thought that you thought saving Mana was stupid!"  
  
"We're so close to finishing your stupid quest, that's why I'm in a rush!" Angela retorted, hefting her cane onto her shoulder. And then there was a problem with turtle-lag, being awake in the middle of the night.  
  
"Princess, I'm as anxious as you to find the Mana Stone, especially seeing as Dryad may be in peril, but we've spent the entire day walking around the Lampflower forest with Carlie, maybe we should rest before we try and find Dryad," Duran advised.  
  
Dammit, the Knight was proving to be a weakness of hers. She felt her resolve to get this whole affair over and done with and out of the way melting like butter.  
  
"Excuse me, but if you need a place to stay, our inn has very affordable prices," one of the elves said, approaching them cautiously. What had happened to scattering in their wake? This Fairy was apparently some amazing token that made them welcome in most kingdoms. Perhaps this was exploitable.  
  
"I think we'll take up that offer," Duran agreed, casting a quick look to confirm with his two companions, one too tired to bother responding, probably from wasteful use of beginner's magic, and the other too smitten. "We'll head out after Dryad and the Mana Stone tomorrow. I'm sure that'll be enough time."  
  
Tomorrow, they'd have the blessings of the last Elemental. Then, the Holyland, and the end of their mission, awaited.  
  
Maybe THEN she could get somewhere with Duran.  
  
_____________________  
  
Wow, possibly the longest chapter yet. The latest out, too. Umm - I distract you all with pretty lights! You remember nothing! I have pondered the platypus's existence, and can only conclude that Mother Nature was drunk. A marsupial that has a beak and lays eggs yet lives in ponds? Yes indeed. Uh, yeah. Please review. ;) 


	33. When You Meet Dryad, Things Start Going ...

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. There is no new information to report on this chapter. Maybe a tiny revelation. I guess they come so rarely they warrant warnings.  
  
Author's note: Next chapter at last! Should any of you possibly been wondering: 'Gee, it's holidays, what could Sinnatious's excuse for such lousy updating be at this time?' (and I'm sure it was a topic of many conversations *cough cough hack*) I did indeed have a precious couple of weeks off, but was forced once again to move residence! I can't seem to stay in any place for more than six months these past three years. Stupid landlords of this city seem to be conspiring to keep me on the move! On the other hand, it does make it harder for the authorities (and various Armies of Darkness) to keep up with me, I guess (. So sorry about that once again. I only ever seem to be saying sorry in the Author's note. Not a good thing.  
  
Response to the Reviewers! (You are all very, very special people. May you never be turned into batteries.):  
  
Omega Weapon: Thank you! Dryad done. Moving on as requested.  
  
FeyenalDragon: I won't be stopping this one. Even if it takes me a while to finish it, I will finish it. I don't like leaving fanfics unfinished, because I know it bugs me when fics I follow aren't finished. Thanks for the review!  
  
FrickinEvilPoptart: Wow, this fic is a year old? How could I have missed THAT? (Looks back). Hey, you're right. Neat. Tell you what, you take over the world first. I'd prefer a fight from the bottom, leading a rebellion or something. That way, everybody wins. (Except the penguins, I guess. They just won't have any room in the new regime...) Woot! Once again, you pick out my favourite part also. Love your reviews so.  
  
Freeloader1: Angie might be part elven, but it wasn't in the game, so I wouldn't know about it (then again, I don't have much respect even for that, do I?) Thank you for the plentiful platypuses. Fried Platypus, yum yum!  
  
Cookie Pixie: We agree on Hawk's magic. That is all I need. Thank you for your review! Gee, both you, Mig-31 and True have been hanging around this fic for a year. My thanks for your loyalty - and great reviews!  
  
JustAddWater: Judging by your penname, we must share a similar belief in the theory of cooking. Though mine is probably more 'JustAddHeat'. Thanks very much for your very high praise (wow, on the same level as a NGE story, if I had a mind left it would blow it). Hope you keep reading and reviewing!  
  
WingsofLead: Hmm, neat musings. Head threatening to explode from new influx of ideas! I thank you! I am inspired to go write another chapter in the fond hopes that you won't have to wait another month for the next one!  
  
Tom Gyllhamn: Sweet. Nothing clever to say. Makes it easier for me to appear witty and clever in comparison. Wait a minute.. DARN IT! You had to go invent a new word and ruin it all, didn't you?! Strange, someone recently also invented 'Sinnatiousness'. I hope they don't charge me for all the dictionary re-writing.. (Laughs) Thanks very much!  
  
WaterDragonerS: Cat food! Woot! Another reviewer been around for a long time. My thanks to thee (bows).  
  
Slash The Ironman: I hear putting fluoride in their water lets your horde leader keep their intelligence yet keeps them submissive. Just a thought (whistles innocently.)  
  
Just call me Angels: More teasing! MORE! (Come on, it's the only way I get reviews.) Brain farts always provide amusement, though. Kept me awake for a few hours, anyway. I'll try and improve on the updates. Thanks for the cool review!  
  
Valon Sergki: Casting Change Form on allies.. Not in the game it's not. But then, this isn't exactly the game either. And technically, if we follow those rules, Angela shouldn't be beating up Hawk with Fire Balls, either. LOL, thanks for the review!  
  
Lone Ronin: So many rabites... (faints)  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Koren is coming, Koren is coming, Koren is coming. (that should keep her happy..) Wait.... Oh shit. This means expectations. Uh Oh.  
  
ThunDaGa: I was in. um... ANTARTICA! Tagging penguins in a scientific research study. No internet connection. Yes indeed (nods earnestly). Oops, I must have missed that typo in the proof-read - heck, I probably mis hundrdes of the things, evne proof-raeding many times... oh, yes, 'Chibbikko'. Tada! Thanks for the review! Gave me a laugh it did.  
  
^_^: Happy if you liked it. Thanks for the review.  
  
Lady Storm: Why thank you! Your good luck must have helped, because by some miracle of the Mana Goddess I passed everything! Woot! (Throws more pretty lights in thanks). Happy happy happy.  
  
TheOneAndOnlyT: I agree about the sages. So I did something about it. And so, 'Another Witchmaker' was born. Yeah, I know, Angela/Hawk thing is planned, in fact, the TRUE beginnings are actually already written, but it's a matter of getting there at the moment. I just ask for a couple more chapter's patience.. Jeez, I've made myself an anti-climax methinks.. Thanks for the review!  
  
Truewind: One of the few reviewers to stick with me for the whole year! (Bows in deep, deep gratitude. Hits head. Ow.). Thank you so much! I must admit, length is a good thing, I'm happy if that chapter met your standards, hope this one can too. I look very much forward to seeing more on 'Seeds of Mana' as well (now THAT fic is a tough act to follow.) Cheers!  
  
More than enough from me, sorry to take so long, thanks to all the reviews! This fic is a year old! OMG! Stop listening to me and read the chapter already!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 33 - When You Meet Dryad, Things Start Going Wrong  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Morning came, and as was the routine by now, Duran had to pry both Hawk and Angela out of bed with the Fairy endlessly yapping in the background. Their last Elemental was to be found today. And Angela couldn't even get a bath for the event. Elves refused such conveniences of society, labelling it as 'human', apparently. And their inn that had come at a 'very affordable price' wasn't that crash hot, either, with beds made of straw that weren't much better than their dwellings from when they stayed with the dwarves, the DWARVES for Goddess's sake! Turns out elves' idea of 'very affordable prices' differed highly to that of humans as well, too, leaving them entirely out of pocket once again. Didn't the Goddess create some sort of 'Mana Hero' allowance or something? Or couldn't she at least arrange for nicer weather every now again? Maybe smite the odd half-elf child or irritating desert thief?  
  
"This sucks! Going into the climax of a mission without a proper bath! My hair's still messed up, and hasn't been washed in nearly a week! I'm a wreck!" Angela complained.  
  
"There there, Angela, it makes you look, uh... natural and wild!" Hawk suggested, ducking the cane that swung past his head.  
  
"Stop your whining!" The Fairy scolded.  
  
"I'll stop my whining when he stops being an idiot!"  
  
"This isn't the time for flirting," Duran said gravely. Since when did his opinion on Hawk's intelligence matter? Angela stopped dead in her tracks suddenly, replaying Duran's last sentence though her head a couple of times to be sure. Wait a minute..... Duran thought...... that when she and Hawk fought..... was FLIRTING?  
  
The man had been brought up in a very strange manner indeed. So that meant that when she had been bickering with Hawk all this time, the Knight thought THAT was flirting, rather than all of her more classical attempts at seduction? So did that mean, that all that self-restraint from lashing out during her bad moods or one of the Forcenan's less-bright moments, was COMPLETELY WASTED?!! That maybe he would have received her hint, if it still had the subtlety to be called a 'hint', had she treated him the same way she treated Hawk?! Had the entire world gone crazy? Maybe the collapse of Mana was affecting the Knight's brain too. Either that or the stupid Fairy was filling it with ridiculous ideas.  
  
This was going to have to warrant an entire change of strategy.  
  
After a moment, she realised that everyone was standing back looking at her, and that she had remained silent for probably longer than one could get away with without looking suspicious. "Me, flirt with that desert rat?! I have some standards, thank you!" She stalked ahead, arriving to stand next to the golden Mana statue the Fairy King had told them about.  
  
" 'Some' being the key word in that sentence," the Fairy sniggered.  
  
"Shut up, gnat! Now, what exactly do we do with this statue?" Angela asked, circling it. The elves must have maintained this one, because it seemed to be in better condition that some others they had seen along the road. In all honesty, the Princess admitted to herself, never being the exactly religious type, she had hardly noticed the statues littered along various paths and near various towns and temples throughout their travels, and now confronted with having to actually use one, she didn't have the faintest clue how.  
  
"Of course you're not the religious type, for that you need morals!" their tiny companion scoffed, likely reading minds again.  
  
"If I was a person without any morals, Fairy, you would have been dead long ago."  
  
Huffing, the Mana Goddess's emissary floated about the statue, seeming to inspect it at length. "Well, the Fairy King said with the blessing of Luna, but seeing as we already have Luna's blessing, maybe we need to demonstrate it? Use some of Luna's magic on the statue maybe?"  
  
"I can't use Moon magic, if you'd care to remember!" She probably could summon Luna directly, but her connection with that particular Elemental was tenuous at best - as much as she hated to admit it even to herself, Luna had been right to refuse her passage to her magic- it clashed too much with the structure of her other magics, and if she had ever tried to cast any form of Lunar magic, it probably would have been a messy affair. Not that she'd ever admit it out loud. Wait a minute.... "You're not suggesting that an amateur like HAWK...."  
  
"Can you do it?" Duran asked the Ranger, who merely shrugged in reply.  
  
"I have been practicing...."  
  
"I do NOT count as practice!"  
  
"But you've been calling it practice on ME all this time!" Hawk protested.  
  
She had to restrain herself from launching with either a Holy Ball or her cane at the thief. Being a rabite once was a bad enough experience, and she CERTAINLY did not want to be participating in any more exchanges until she could figure out this absurd notion Duran seemed to have. "Either way, that was only once! When could you possibly have had time to practice?!"  
  
Pushing a stray lock of violet hair from his eyes, the Ranger grinned at her, amber eyes flashing briefly. "Luna!" He gestured casually. An instant later, the enigmatic Elemental of the Moon unfolded before them.  
  
"How may I be of service?" she inquired gracefully, floating before them, shrouded in an ethereal soft golden light  
  
"Show off," the Delvar muttered under her breath.  
  
"We need to open the pathway, that is linked to this statue. Can you do it?" Hawk asked.  
  
The Elemental was quiet for a long moment, and seemed to be concentrating. Her shine grew brighter abruptly then faded as the grove of trees before them parted, revealing a path deeper into the Forest. "I have broken Dryad's seal. Your path is open." With no further adieu, she faded from sight.  
  
"Easy as!" Hawk announced, skipping ahead into the grove of trees.  
  
"Easy for you? You didn't DO anything except summon Luna! She did all the work!"  
  
"Well, the Elementals themselves aren't THAT powerful. They need a conduit before their full force can come into play," the Fairy explained, in her typical 'beginning a lecture' tone. "And even then, not just anyone is a suitable outlet for the Elementals' powers."  
  
"I am perfectly well-educated in magic and Mana, thank you!" Angela interrupted, following Hawk into the next clearing, the Knight and his tag- along trailing after them. They were faced with a dark, foreboding archway leading into the next clearing. The foliage was already distinctly different, the Lampflowers giving way to thick oaks and elaborate shrubbery. The trio paused before it, the Fairy disappearing into Duran's head once again, a sure sign of trouble. Even Duran seemed to be able to tell, without any form of magic sensitivity, that both Mana and something far more twisted lay beyond it.  
  
"I never did like dark archways," Hawk commented idly, slipping his short swords soundlessly into his hands, clearly expecting a battle ahead.  
  
"Let's hurry on through it, then," Duran said, drawing his own broadsword and readying his shield.  
  
Marching into the next clearing, their instincts did not seem to be in error as the thorny brushes forming the archway closed behind them. "A trap?!" Angela asked, alarmed, raising her cane to the ready.  
  
In the center of the clearing, a grossly deformed plant... or at least they were pretty sure it was a plant... was firmly rooted, with vines waving about as though they were tentacles. Somehow, they felt as though they had met their evil scary monster of the day.  
  
"It is a trap. A trap for its prey," Hawk said grimly.  
  
"No way, it wants to EAT us?!" Angela shrieked.  
  
"It'll have a tough time doing so!" Duran said, hefting his sword to eye level and running for what seemed to be either the body or the mouth of the monstrous plant. "Hyaaah!"  
  
The tentacles that had previously been waving about randomly converged on the Knight, blocking his path. He hacked at them, though apparently uselessly as there was ever more vines to replace them, the long arc of his broadsword too slow to cut a clear path before the way was once again sealed.  
  
"He's wasting his time trying to get in that way," Hawk observed. "Let's give him a diversion, hey Angie?"  
  
"What, now you need MY magic?"  
  
"Angie! Not now!"  
  
"Fine, fine! FIRE BALL!"  
  
Hawk raced ahead as the creature drew some of its vines from Duran to waylay the thief's own path. However, the Ranger ducked at the last minute, giving way to the Princess's fireball. The spell burnt it's way through the netting of vines, giving him the time he needed to dart in and attack the main body of the creature. It hissed, the first sound it had yet made, as the Navarrian slashed at it with his short swords somewhat ineffectively. Well, not entirely ineffectively. It did make it angry.  
  
Drawing the vines away from a tiring Duran, the shrieking plant grabbed hold of the thief, picking him up and throwing him away from it. Angela winced as he thudded to the ground - that HAD to hurt. Following him seemed to be a round, orange object just screaming of danger. A pumpkin bomb!  
  
"Hawk, look out!"  
  
"Ack! Flying Swallow Toss!" How exactly the thief managed to execute that attack while on his back on the ground would forever mystify them, but then, adrenaline was more potent than most herbs. The storm of throwing daggers connected, causing the pumpkin bomb to explode in Hawk's face.  
  
Belatedly, Angela remembered that Duran was still trying to get at the creature. Get rid of this thing first, THEN they could be checking on the reckless desert rat. "Duran, duck! FIRE BALL!"  
  
The Knight instinctively ducked - the fireball once again burned away the tangle of vines, creating a clear path for Duran to do his stuff. Three short steps later, and the swordsman had dismembered the beast. Or plant. Thing.  
  
As the animated vines collapsed and the plant blacked and shrivelled into nothing more than a dirty mark on the ground, Angela ran over to where Hawk was coughing and hacking on the ground, still waving smoke away from his face.  
  
"Duran! Some cure magic!"  
  
Hawk waved her away though. "I'm fine Angie, I got it to explode before it could land, I just got a bit singed."  
  
Standing up and folding her arms crossly, she raised an eyebrow at the thief's disheveled state. "That was some diversion."  
  
"We can't all be such masters at it as you, can we?" he retorted, smirking.  
  
She spent a long moment considering how to appropriately react to THAT comment. For the time being, the Delvar was still stuck on the notion that Duran had a completely BACKWARDS understanding of flirtation. And given that, was trying to decide whether she could bring herself to actually physically attack the Knight should she choose to change tactics, AND be nice to Hawk.  
  
Arriving at their side, Duran wiped his blade clean before sheathing it, commenting, "Well, that was easy."  
  
Hawk did not look as impressed, covered with soot from head to toe. "Easy?"  
  
The Knight faltered briefly. "Well, it was easier than fighting Lugar, at any rate."  
  
"So, was that just your standard Forest of Wonder vermin or something else?" he asked.  
  
"It was a horrible creature! It was keeping me captive! Thank you so much!" A new voice entered the scene. Logically they had just liberated their final Elemental - the Fairy rushed from Duran's head, embarrassed at not being adequately prepared for the greeting.  
  
Unfolding before them was the unmistakable form of the Elemental of Wood - Dryad. She resembled a palm tree, if anything. Strangely enough, she seemed more delicate than even some of the more ethereal Elementals such a Luna and Wisp. Furthermore, she seemed more like an anxious child rather than a powerful entity as she bowed to greet them, clasping and wringing her hands nervously.  
  
"You must be Dryad, right?" Duran said, probably feeling the most at ease with stating the obvious.  
  
"I am. And you must be the Goddess's champions," she observed, clasping hands and bowing again. It was the first time any of the Elementals had actually bowed to THEM, even IF they were immensely grateful for their intervention.  
  
"Dryad, it is good to see you. But I'm afraid we don't have time for pleasantries. You must know by now that we need to get the Mana Holyland, and we need your power and blessing to do it. You're the last one," the Fairy implored.  
  
The trio were already preparing themselves to take on the presence of a new Elemental, so all three were shocked to see Dryad hesitate, then falter. "I don't know....."  
  
"WHAT? We're not good enough for your blessing? We've come all this way! All of the other Elementals thought we deserved it, offered it even!" Angela snapped, not even bothering to hold her voice down.  
  
Dryad shied away slightly. "It's not that..... you've already proven yourselves more than worthy..... but I don't really know..... if I can be much help to you."  
  
"Dryad!" The Fairy was clearly shocked. Probably more for the fact that an Elemental had the nerve to turn down what was nearly a direct order from the Mana Holyland rather than the idea that an Elemental thought its power was useless.  
  
The Elemental of Wood was wringing her hands again. "It's just that..... with Mana the way it is..... I've become so much weaker..... I may only even burden you....."  
  
Angela had heard that Dryad's powers were largely inaccessible, but she wasn't going to believe for a moment that the Elemental of Wood was weak. She was a student of Magical Kingdom Altena after all, and whether she paid regular attention in classes or not didn't change the fact that she'd heard before that while most of Dryad's magic was supplementary and not used for attack spells, it was among the rarest and most potent form of magic - some even went as far to say that some of Dryad's magic was a form of pure Mana energy itself, given that the Goddess had taken the form of a tree, which was in Dryad's element.  
  
"You must be kidding! You're the Elemental of Wood! Of course you can help! Not only that, we NEED you!" the Princess beseeched her. She MUST be desperate to finish this crazy quest if she was showing faith in one of these eclectic Elementals.  
  
Duran vigorously nodded his agreement. "You can do it, I know you can!"  
  
"And an Elemental as pretty as you certainly must have more to her," Hawk interjected smoothly. Trust the Ranger to notice the Elemental's feminine form and hit on her. When they were Chibikko-size with the Fairy was bad enough, now he had the nerve to be hitting on Elementals?! What next? The Goddess herself?  
  
At least the Goddess would probably have the power to smite him as he deserved. "She's an Elemental, she can read your mind, you retard," the Delvar hissed.  
  
"Well," Dryad began, twirling a leaf of her shiny green hair uncertainly. "If you so wish it, I would be honoured to do my best in your service." Angela couldn't believe it, Hawk's flattery had worked when nothing else had?! Seeming to reach a decision, the Elemental of Wood bowed again before them. "Very well then. You shall have both my blessing, and my magic - though it may not be much good to you."  
  
"Any magic is helpful," The Delvar affirmed.  
  
Dryad blinked at length. "Oh? I am afraid, Angela of Altena, that my magic is not open to one of your specialties."  
  
What?  
  
Turning from her, Dryad moved to float in front of a sheepish-looking Hawk. "You, however, Hawk of Navarre, will be able to utilise what little magic I can offer you." The Navarrian closed his eyes as he was surrounded with a soft green glow, imbued with now his second set of Elemental magics.  
  
AGAIN! She wasn't good enough for an Elemental's magic and Hawk was AGAIN?! Even AFTER she'd made that great show of faith to Dryad? Stupid Elemental probably just gave him her magic because he said she was pretty.  
  
The process was complete, Hawk opening his eyes again, looking the most serene she'd seen him in quite some time. Looking over, he offhandedly commented, "Trying to catch flies, Angie?"  
  
Clamping her mouth shut, Duran's silly notion of physical violence being a form of flirtation once again staying the deliverance of a deadly Evil Gate by the Delvar, Angela was torn how to appropriately react to the situation. Fortunately, Dryad took the attention from her once again.  
  
"Duran of Forcena, Mana Knight, you too may or may not be able to benefit from some of my magic later, depending on which path you choose to tread, as well. For now, though, I am afraid that this is all I can do to help you. I sincerely hope it will be enough. Now, I-"  
  
Voice cutting off abruptly, Dryad seemed suddenly distressed. After a moment, she began again, "Please, now that you have my power, you should hurry to the Holyland. Mana grows weak. The others tell me that the Mana Stones may be in peril. We should hurry to the Holyland before they are lost!"  
  
"What?" Duran looked surprised and vaguely disturbed. "But the Stones of Light, Earth, Moon and Wood are all still safe!"  
  
The Elemental of Wood shook her head, beginning to wring her hands once again. "I cannot answer for the other Stones, but I do know that the Mana Stone of Wood is still safe. But now that my blessing has passed on to you, the already weakened protection on my Stone will vanish. The case is likely true with the others. You should make it to the Mana Holyland before those who would conspire to unseal the Stones can take this opportunity."  
  
Wait - once they received an Elemental's blessing, that left the Mana Stone vulnerable? "Fairy! Why didn't you tell us that?!" Angela demanded.  
  
Fidgeting guiltily, the tiny deity admitted, "I didn't think that it was that important. So long as we received the Elemental's blessings faster than the Stones were unsealed, we'd be able to enter the Mana Holyland in plenty of time in advance."  
  
"Please," Dryad beseeched, "Hurry!" With that, she vanished from sight. But not a moment later, Angela felt the familiar presence of the other Elementals bubble up in her consciousness, radiating wordless urgency. From the looks on her companions' faces, she expected that they were experiencing the same. A council of Elementals, suddenly urging them to Mana Holyland? The Delvar kept hearing their voices resounding in her head, telling her to hurry.  
  
"Okay, okay! Quiet in there!" She finally yelled. The Elementals quieted down a little, allowing the party of three to turn to the Fairy. "So, Fairy, we've got all of the Elementals now, Mana Holyland is next, right? How do we get there?"  
  
"There's only one place in which we can safely open the Gateway," she informed them. "It's on a small island in the center of the largest ocean. It's called the Island of Oblivion."  
  
"It would be called that," Hawk muttered under his breath.  
  
These places had all of the most UPLIFTING names.... "Okay then," Duran said, taking charge as his theoretical Mana Knighthood demanded. "Can you direct Booskaboo there, Fairy?"  
  
"I can."  
  
"Then let's not waste any time. We'll leave for the there immediately." With that, the Knight strode decidedly out of the clearing, and back through Lampflower Forest, his companions having to hot-foot it to keep up his long determined stride. Angela only prayed that they wouldn't encounter Carlie as they left the forest - the last thing they needed on their way to the Mana Holyland was the tyke tagging along. Come to think of it, whatever DID happen to the High Priest's Granddaughter? They hadn't seen her after she's vanished from the Fairy King's house.  
  
Fortunately, she need not have worried about the problem, as within a startling amount of time, they had made it safely outside of Lampflower forest with no sign of the girl, their haste as such that they ran blindly past any Chobits or other flora and fauna that dared threaten them. After an impatient couple of minutes waiting for Booskaboo to come to their call, they were riding the waves again, heading for this 'Island of Oblivion'.  
  
When she was Queen of Altena, all of these places were going to be named much better.  
  
Most of the ride on the giant turtle, which even at Booskaboo going at full speed took the entire afternoon, was spent in a tense silence, with even the Fairy stopping her annoying yammering for once, save for directions. Which was surprising - Angela, and probably Hawk and Duran too, though they were less likely to admit it, were expecting a last minute lecture on brushing their teeth before entering the Mana Holyland. Though the Fairy had proved before that when the chips were down, just about anything would do to save Mana. That had been the theory for choosing Duran as the Mana Knight after all.  
  
"I see it!" Hawk called out, finally breaking the tense silence. The tiny dot that was their destination had at last appeared on the horizon, and quickly grew larger before them. The island was indeed very small. If it hadn't been for the Fairy's guidance, they would never have found it in the vast expanse of ocean by themselves.  
  
"That's it.... That's the Island of Oblivion?" Angela made a note that when she was Queen of Altena, she wouldn't be giving insignificant landmarks grand names that they didn't deserve. As it was, she was inclined to think even 'Island' was being generous, given its size.  
  
Booskaboo crashed recklessly up onto the beach, panting from the exertion. They hopped off its back hurriedly, throwing it some more candy - probably more than was healthy for the oversized turtle, but their supply of snacks wasn't really their top priority at the moment. Once their ally had left, a desolate silence settled over the pinprick of land. Even the waves on the small beach seemed muted - there was no life on this island at all, no birds, nothing.  
  
Perhaps this was where the 'Oblivion' part came in.  
  
Stepping off the beach onto grass, the Delvar at last noted the many statues of the Mana Goddess, lined up in formation, like a guard of honour leading to a clearing on a small cliff at the southern end of the island. Duran was looking about in wonder, as the Fairy flitted about them. It was almost as though the statues stood at guard, like divine protectors of...... well, nothing. Other than that, the island was truly empty but for a few shrubs and rocks, but now that they actually laid foot on it, all of them realised how much more there was to it. Even as a novice apprentice, Angela felt she still would have been able to feel the holy energy rolling off the tiny island in waves. As it was, with the heightened sensitivity of the Elementals, it was nearly blinding to her. Even Hawk, with only rudimentary newborn magic skills, looked uncomfortable with the amount of Mana energy present.  
  
Then again, it was supposedly necessary. It wasn't every day the gateway to the Mana Holyland was opened. It would probably take quite a bit of energy to do that.  
  
Though there was that irking thought at the back of the Princess's mind the entire way that hoped 'Going to the Mana Holyland' wasn't some sort of metaphor that meant the Fairy was going to kill them. Not that she could really succeed, but now might be the time to ask, before it was too late. It would be somewhat difficult to kill Koren from the afterlife.  
  
"Um, Fairy?"  
  
"No, Angela."  
  
Stupid mind-reading insect. "Okay then."  
  
Now that they had arrived at the Island, the Elementals' anxiety had more- or-less vanished, awarding the three of them to each take a relaxed breath that they hadn't been allowed in hours. Now that they were here, so close to the Mana Holyland that they could practically taste the sweet nectar in the air, urgency was replaced by the bubbling feeling of growing close to what had once seemed an impossible goal. Theoretically, their journey hadn't even been a month long, but it felt like a lifetime - Angela could scarce imagine the person she was when she had fled Altena. Had she come so far? Those were days when she couldn't even get off a spark when she tried to cast a Holy Ball.  
  
Approaching the end of the island, they steeled themselves, Angela and Hawk instinctively flanking Duran as he stepped forward with the Fairy to look into the sunset. "Fairy..... we made it!"  
  
The tiny deity's eyes seemed to be brimming with tears. "Everybody, thank you so much.... We've come so far......"  
  
"Turn off the waterworks and open this gateway to the Mana Holyland already! The sooner we get the sword the sooner I can take a break and go somewhere that has a bath," Angela interrupted.  
  
Duran didn't heed the words either, clearly wanting a moment to savour the climax of his long journey himself. "Princess, Hawk, I want to thank you for accompanying on this journey. I don't think I could have made it without you."  
  
"No problem! Though, I didn't really do it for you, you know," Hawk said amiably, slapping the Knight good-naturedly on the back.  
  
"I know, but your companionship and assistance has been invaluable," the Knight replied.  
  
"Yeah, well, same."  
  
Grumbling to herself, the Delvar decided to jump on the bandwagon herself. "I couldn't have come this far with my magic if it weren't for you guys either," she added begrudgingly. Especially with Hawk as target practice. "But - by no means are we finished yet! Gate to the Holyland, gnat?"  
  
"Yes, of course." The moment of reverence classically broken, their tag- along floated forward to the edge of the small precipice.  
  
"Elementals, come forth!" she called.  
  
Wisp half-floated half-bounced out of nowhere. "It's time!" As he vanished, the Fairy's glow grew stronger.  
  
Gnome was next to bound out. "Here I go!"  
  
Jinn was accompanied by a strong breath of wind. "To the Holyland!"  
  
Shade. "I add my powers to yours."  
  
Undine danced into existence, to disappear again. "Good luck."  
  
Salamando. "We're gonna make them all BURN!"  
  
Luna. "I give you all of my blessing."  
  
Lastly, a nervous and timid Dryad. "I- I'll do my best!"  
  
With the power of all Eight Elementals brightening the Fairy to an almost blinding shine, the tiny deity took a deep breath, stilling in the air, whispering to herself. "Here we go."  
  
The electricity in the air was enough to almost make their hair stand on end. Slowly, the impossible seemed to happen as a multicoloured hole began to materialise and expand in the very air before them. Angela found herself holding her breath as it grew, perhaps large enough to accommodate the Fairy, then began to struggle. The trio breathed out a sigh of defeat as it shrunk back into nothingness again.  
  
The Fairy was panting, hands hanging limply by her sides. "It's no good! I don't have enough power, even with all of the Elementals!"  
  
"Fairy, please try!" Duran begged. "I know you can do it!"  
  
"Stupid gnat! We did all of that work for you and you can't even open a silly Gate to the Mana Holyland?" Angela scoffed. "We fought all sorts of crazy creatures and you can't even open a silly gate!"  
  
Expression hardening, the tiny deity turned back. "I'll try it again!" She set about, pulling the energy. Again, the Gate appeared, and started to slowly expand, the Fairy's glow brightening further. And so, the Gate began to open.  
  
"Yeah! You're doing it!" the Knight cheered from the sidelines.  
  
"If only to spite Angie," the Ranger commented.  
  
Spite was apparently indeed a powerful force, as the Gate grew larger... and larger.... and larger.  
  
"Fairy, do we really need a Gate THAT big?" Hawk asked uncertainly.  
  
"It's the energy! It's not stopping!" The Fairy panicked, wings beginning to flutter rapidly.  
  
No sooner that those words were uttered, a flash of searing light ripped through the scene, burning their eyes. The magical power being unleashed was incredible! A powerful breath of wind that would have done Jinn shame lashed out, knocking them to the ground so hard it that it forced the air out of the Delvar's lungs. As the trio of travellers hit the ground, Angela had only one thought before losing the battle for consciousness, and falling into darkness.  
  
What had gone wrong?  
  
_____________________  
  
Yes indeed. Pretty soon, EVERYTHING goes wrong. Look forward to it. I got me a new toothbrush! Woot! Reviews are appreciated. On the story, not the toothbrush. But you can review that too if you really want. 


	34. Holy Holy Holyland

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. And that this chapter is long. Longest yet. Woot!  
  
Author's note: Next chapter has arrived as promised, and it's a doozy. (In length, but nothing else!) I am a fish. Erk erk.  
  
Response to the Reviewers!:  
  
Freeloader1: (Dances like a fish) Angela, suffering a nervous breakdown? Could work, but I don't know if I can really make it funny... Yes, transparency magic is fun. Wow, DVDs cost the same as toothbrushes there? I have to move to YOUR country. Thanks for the review.  
  
Lady Storm: Probably not. Well, I suppose I'm prejudiced against Duran, probably scared away all of the Duran-lovers long ago back in Chapter 5. My mind went wrong a long time ago. Which explains the last 33 chapters. Will do my best to make sure it stays that way! Thanks for your reviews.  
  
Feyenal Dragon: Thank you very much! (Wow, I'm competing with FFtactics, now THAT's a compliment.) Good luck on finals, and your new fic too!  
  
WaterDragonerS: I was dead. But your powerful reviews brought me back to life to write another chapter. Good work! Well, seeing as SquareEnix IS part of my master world-domination plan, I suppose I could arrange it. Just make sure you do a good job on the Seiken Densetsu remake. I thank you for your loyalty (Bows.. Like a fish.)  
  
Just Call Me Angels: Oh... so weak to puppy dog eyes.. must resist... I am happy you can enjoy the not-so humorous chapters. Thanks very much for your review!  
  
Oxi-Nu: (Burns down Tokyo.) Whee! Wait a minute..  
  
Lj7: We'll see. Oh, okay, so I know, but I'm not telling.  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Wow, the entire word! Thank you! Uh oh, Koren's intro next chapter.. (starts chewing on fingernails from nervousness..) Everybody respond to Kurai's shameless self-promoting!  
  
TheOneAndOnlyT: Yes, Angela is that petty to wanting a bath over saving the world. Though I can't understand how this can have cliffhangers! You've all played the game, right? I don't deviate TOO drastically from events.. I will attempt to update faster, but I've been going for chapter length over fast updates. That's big praise, thanks very much! (blushes like a fish.)  
  
ThunDaGa: Your sugar is mine! (SugarSugarSugarSugarSugar). Thank you! I actually do use Duran's techs, he uses Cure Magic quite often and he used the Three-step-Cut to kill that plant thing last chapter, I just didn't make a big deal out of it. (inserts regular thanks here). You have fun too! Woo!  
  
Mig-31: This comrade begs to differ! There are two types of foxes in the Lampflower forest that use archery - the ones wearing green hoods are called Chobits, and the ones wearing red hoods are called Robin Hoods (or is it the other way around. well you get my point.) They were even in the first Secret of Mana. Then again, Persocoms attacking the Mana Heroes would be pretty funny... Thanks for your review!  
  
Cookie Pixie: Woot! Birthday Cookie! Hey, then I guessed I missed it - Happy Birthday Cookie Pixie! I like to keep most battles short and succinct, seeing as this story is already far longer than I originally planned. Glad you picked up on the euphemism, I always love your reviews! Hope you keep reading.  
  
^_^: I do move around a lot, but it makes me free as a bird! (Or at least a stray, mangy dog that doesn't eat very often.) Hm, yeah, slightly less funny chapter, humour gland has been playing up. Hope you will forgive. Thanks for the review!  
  
That's it from Response to Reviewers! Less than usual, but that makes them so much more lovable. Enough of my fishy prattle, hope you enjoy the chapter.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 34 - Holy Holy Holyland  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
Angela of Altena forced opened her emerald eyes groggily, thick lashes blinking away the drowsiness repeatedly. The first thing she was aware of was a cold breeze, blowing her already short skirt up somewhere around her waist. With an embarrassed squeal, she sat up, pushing the flimsy red garment back to its proper position. A moment later, her brain decided to catch up, as she glanced about in confusion. What the-?  
  
Island of Oblivion. Gate to Mana Holyland. Duran was hot. Fairy couldn't open Gate. She made a highly intelligent comment. Gate got big. Hawk made a stupid comment. Gate.... exploded?  
  
Come to think of it, the Gate they had worked so hard to open was nowhere to be seen.  
  
Holding a hand to her head as she hurriedly recollected all of these facts, she turned and looked around for her companions - she didn't have to look far. Nearby, the Fairy, glow diminished to the point where she was once again barely luminescent at all, was desperately tugging on an unconscious Duran's arm. "Duran! Duran! Wake up! You have to wake up! The Mana Sword is in danger!"  
  
Rubbing her head and still not certain if she was yet awake, she spared a moment to locate the still-comatose thief, sprawled out on the grass nearby. He was here in one piece too. Okay, they were all in relatively good health, probably just got a bump on the head when they were knocked over by that shockwave or whatever, or were overwhelmed by all of the Mana magic pouring out from the gate exploding - that'd probably knock out even the most rudimentary of magic-users. So it was probably a combination of both. Come to think of it, it had been sunset when they had arrived here, and it looked like it was well into night now. How long had she been unconscious?  
  
"Ah! Angela!" The Fairy looked relieved that at least one of them was up and awake. "You're alright! We have to wake Duran and Hawk, NOW!" A low groan from the Knight indicated consciousness was near, the Fairy zipping excitedly back over to his side. How the shiny insect escaped all harm when the rest of them were knocked silly - that is, sillier than usual - had to be nothing short of the work of the Goddess. Sighing, even though she'd probably rather tend to the handsome Knight, the Princess dragged herself over the unconscious Ranger and slapped him a few times.  
  
"Hey! Wake up! There's no way you're going to sleep while I'm up listening to the Fairy all by myself!"  
  
Blinking groggily, then holding a hand to his cheek tenderly, Hawk sleepily asked, "Was it really necessary to slap me that hard, Angie?" His amber eyes flew open a minute later, sitting up so fast the pair cracked heads.  
  
Angela clutched at her already throbbing skull. "Idiot!"  
  
"Sorry," he apologised, wincing himself. "What happened to the Gate?"  
  
Shrugging, the Delvar just gestured to the empty space where the Gate had existed for just a moment.  
  
"At last!" Seemed like the Fairy had finally succeeded in her task of waking her precious Mana Knight. Not that the Mana Knight was much of a Mana Knight without the Mana Sword, something which seemed to be quickly becoming something of an issue.  
  
"Fairy? Princess? Hawk? What happened?" So the Forcenan still wasn't quite with it. They waited another minute or two for his brain to catch up with his body, Angela using the time to straighten her hair, Hawk deciding to follow suit and tighten the ribbon around his ponytail. How long was the thief's hair, anyway? The Delvar had wondered about it more than once, but he always kept it back in that thin rope. "The Gate! What happened to the Gate?!"  
  
Ah, it seemed their beloved Mana Knight had caught up. The trio turned and looked expectantly at the Fairy for some sort of answer. When none was forthcoming, the Princess decided to help things along a bit.  
  
"So Fairy, what happened? You can't even open the Gate to the Mana Holyland without killing us?" Angela sneered, then stopped and thought about it again for a long minute. Was she REALLY sure it wasn't a euphemism?  
  
Not even bothering to defend herself, shoulders sagging, the tiny deity just pointed up  
  
Each of them raised their heads skyward. When one squinted, it seemed like there was a faint glow, a smudge on the sky above them even, that looked disturbingly like....  
  
"HOW in the name of all eight Elementals did the Gate get all the way UP THERE?!" Angela yelled.  
  
"It looks very big," Duran offered helpfully, strangely calm given the situation.  
  
"I am afraid the seals on all the Mana Stones were broken, and their power was released. When that combined with the power of the Elementals as I tried to open the Gate....." The Fairy looked miserable. "Well, you can see what happened for yourselves. The worst part is that the Mana Sword itself is now in danger! While all of you were unconscious, I saw an airship, a small army of large birds, and a small fleet of hot air balloons enter through the Gate!"  
  
Thinking hard, Angela counted off on her fingers. "Well, the airship would be Altena's, that was just completed last year. The birds sound like they belong to the Beast Kingdom. But what's with these hot air balloons? Crazy!"  
  
Hawk coughed nonchalantly off the side. "Ah well, you see, Flamekhan started doing that a few years ago, to see if maybe he could convince some more tourists to come to Navarre."  
  
"More tourists to rob, you mean," Angela deadpanned. "That must be Bigieu and Jagan, then. No one else would use something as stupid as hot air balloons to get to the Mana Holyland."  
  
"They must all be after the Mana Sword," Duran concluded.  
  
"But why?" the Princess asked. "What could they possibly use it for?"  
  
"The power of the Sword isn't just to heal Mana and seal the Stones, but it is also capable of mass destruction! That Sword is the nexus of all of the Goddess's power!" the Fairy cried out. "If one of them gets their hands on the Sword before we do....!"  
  
"Well, at least they'll probably keep busy fighting each other for a while, so not all is lost," Hawk offered in a futile effort to cheer the group up.  
  
"Except have you forgotten that the Gate is waaaaaaay up there in the sky?! Exactly HOW are we going to take advantage of that and beat them there?!" Angela complained.  
  
"Wait.....," the Fairy seemed to be thinking hard. "The Mana Goddess once mentioned something to me, I don't know if it could be of any help. Have any of you heard of 'The Father of the Winged Ones'?"  
  
Duran looked completely lost for a moment, before shaking his head. "I am afraid not." Well, they all pretty much expected that. "You, Hawk?"  
  
The Navarrian shook his head as well, turning to the Princess. "It's nothing from any of Navarre's legends. Angie?"  
  
It did seem familiar, now that she thought about it. The Princess wracked her brain, certain she'd heard something about this from Jose's lessons. Curses, why did she have to waste all of her time skipping class and flirting with Victor?! Clearly she'd learnt nothing from either, if her current status was anything to go by. At this rate, Riesz would get a boyfriend before she-  
  
Wait, Riesz! Rolante! "I've heard! The tale about the Father of the Winged Ones! He lives at the highest point in the world! That'd be Rolante!"  
  
"Then we don't have much time! We have to hurry!" Duran urged, standing and grabbing his sword from where he had dropped it on the ground, sheathing it hurriedly. He ran to the beach and called Booskaboo; fortunately the turtle had obviously been too tired from the swim there to wander far as he arrived almost instantaneously. The trio clambered aboard, nearly leaving the Fairy behind in their haste, and Booskaboo set off.  
  
"To Rolante, Booskaboo! Hurry!" Duran yelled. Seeming to sense their need for haste, the turtle set out at a pace they didn't think it capable of - probably speeded along by the wind and currents, with the power of the Elementals at hand. Now that they had a spare moment to think, they sensed the overwhelming anxiety, and near-panic in some cases, of their cohort of Elementals, all seeming a paltry mirror the Fairy's look of near-hysteria as she stared up at the Gate in the sky receding quickly behind them.  
  
"Don't worry too much," Duran consoled her, turning back to face them. The tiny deity seemed to be chewing on her nails nervously. "We can make it in time, so long as we don't stop on the way. We'll have to sleep on Booskaboo. We can't waste the time needed to stay in an inn." Hawk and Angela both nodded their reluctant agreement.  
  
At least, that made sense in theory. It was hard enough to catch a nap on the back of a giant sea turtle barreling through the ocean, with a perverted thief entirely too close for comfort and the imaginary risk of her beloved Knight seeing her doing something embarrassing like snoring as it was. With all of the tumult in Mana and the general panic of the Fairy and their squad of Elementals thrown in as well, the task was nigh impossible.  
  
So it was a very tired trio of Mana heroes arrived at the beach outside Palo, half leaping off the giant turtle, not even having any sweets to give it this time. The disgruntled Booskaboo left the beach behind them anyway, but it probably wouldn't want to come pick them up again. This 'Father of the Winged Ones' tale better be true in that case. Either way, they were running out of time.  
  
They made their way straight through Palo, brushing past the confused townspeople at a half-run following the tireless Knight. Hawk's easy gait let him keep up easily enough, but Angela was wondering whether she could head the whole way up the Path to the Heavens at this pace on virtually no sleep. Concussion wasn't exactly restful, but she supposed that would have to do for now.  
  
They didn't stop to fight the many Needle Birds littering to the Path to the Heavens either, pushing past the nefarious creatures as swiftly as possible, Hawk either throwing arrows or Angela spells to blast them away before they even reached them. Keeping the steady stride up hill was hard, but all of the Elementals offered them some strength. There wasn't a moment's pause for breath until Rolante Castle came into view.  
  
"At last!" The Princess sighed, slowing down to a walk as the castle gates opened. It seemed that the sentries had spotted them before they arrived - Riesz emerged with a small contingent of her Amazonesses to greet them.  
  
"Riesz!" Duran said, bowing and greeting her, taking a moment to catch his breath as well. It probably wasn't that easy to carry that heavy sword, shield and armour up a mountain at that pace either. It wasn't even noon yet. The last time they had climbed the Path to the Heavens, it had been a day-long affair. Come to think of it, why was it that the Knight always called Riesz by her first name and STILL insisted on calling HER, his long- time companion, 'Princess'?!  
  
"Duran, Hawk, Angela..." she responded, nodding to each of them respectively, then pausing. "Jeez, Angela, what happened to your hair?"  
  
"Save it for later!" the Altenan snapped back irritably. Damn Amazonesses and their perfect blonde hair. Probably didn't even have to brush it to keep it shiny.  
  
Hawk stepped forward, taking Riesz's slender hand in his own, apparently still with plenty of breath to waste on pleasantries. "My my, Riesz, you're more beautiful every time I see you!" That would be the class change at work, probably. Though the Amazoness was, apparently, still prone to blushing at the drop of a hat.  
  
"I'm sorry, Riesz, but the Gate the Mana Holyland is wide open. We need to find the Father of the Winged Ones. Now," Duran panted.  
  
Brow creasing as she sensed the urgency of the situation, she nodded, not wasting the usual time she would spend to flirt with the thief and Knight, thank the Goddess. "This path leads to the Summit of the Skies. The Father of the Winged Ones can be called from there."  
  
The Knight nodded his thanks, already turning to make his way up the ever- growing-steeper path. "Much appreciated, Riesz!"  
  
"Wait! You'll need the drum to call him!" The Princess hastily ran inside the gate, emerging mere moments later carrying a strange double-sided drum. It looked more like a toy than anything. "Please give the Goddess my respects when you reach the Holyland."  
  
"Do I get a kiss for good luck?" Hawk asked, giving the Rolante heir a quick peck on the cheek, before running ahead to catch up with Duran.  
  
Angela remained for a moment, deciding what to do herself, but merely shrugged, muttering a barely audible and cursory 'thanks' in the general direction of the other Princess before running to join up with the other two members of her travelling party. They waved briefly, then continued their power walk up the hill. She was half surprised that the other girl didn't want to come. Then again, her brother Prince Elliot probably wasn't in the Mana Holyland, and it seemed as though the Princess was stuck re- building her Kingdom for the time being. Or maybe the Goddess was getting desperate and was throwing them small blessings at last.  
  
"Duran.... slow down... air getting thin..." Angela gasped as they climbed the steep path, at points having even to abandon walking for crawling.  
  
"Nearly there, Princess!" he called back. It was a crying shame Hawk was walking between them, ruining her view. It was already early afternoon. It was hard at this point to believe that they could still make it to the Holyland in time. She only hoped the Goddess was a little better at protecting the Mana Sword than the hopeless Elementals were at protecting their Stones.  
  
'I heard that,' Wisp, and probably a couple of other Elementals commented in her head.  
  
Dang it, did ALL deities of any form take it as their personal right to spy on her thoughts all the time?  
  
"We're here! We made it, look Angie!" Hawk proclaimed, sure-footedly leaping to the very top of the summit, where a sharp cliff dropped off, a steep slide into the far below ocean. Taking her first good look at her surroundings, the Delvar found the height dizzying. The view was beautiful, sure enough, in fact it felt as though one could see most of the world from up here, but it probably would have been a bit prettier if there was some sort of fence ensuring she wouldn't get a look at it closer than she bargained for.  
  
Duran was too busy inspecting the drum to admire the view, ever fixated on the mission at hand. "I guess we swing it..... like this?"  
  
Sighing, Angela carefully reached over and corrected the Knight's grasp, trying to stop herself from imitating Riesz and blushing as she did so. Smiling broadly, the Knight thanked her and held the drum high, letting the corded beads bang against it. It didn't seem nearly loud enough to call anything, but then again, maybe the Father of the Winged Ones had really good hearing.  
  
Somehow, they had expected at least a small wait like they usually had to deal with whenever they called Booskaboo, but no sooner than Duran had hooked the drum onto his belt did a powerful breath of wind blast through the scene, nearly knocking Hawk to his death. Leaping backwards at the last minute and landing in a crouch, he straightened with the three of them, whistling as an unbelievably cute white dragon with four aqua-tipped wings appeared from the sky, coming to hover in front of them, seeming to inspect them with an innocent curiosity.  
  
"Um.... isn't he a bit small?" Angela asked; even though it looked like the dragon could easily accommodate all three of them, she had somehow expected the 'Father of the Winged Ones' to be a little more majestic and a little less..... well, cute.  
  
Duran shrugged, going onto his customary one knee to show his respect. "Father of the Winged Ones, we need your help. Will you take us to the Mana Holyland?"  
  
The look of innocent curiosity seemed to grow annoyed, and a blasting bray bursting from the throat of the animal in front of them seemed to reflect that. Angela resisted the urge to step back. As cute as it may have been, it was still plenty big with claws sharp enough to tear them to shreds.  
  
"Um, you think that might be a 'no'?" she suggested.  
  
Duran shrugged. "Should I call the Fairy out to help?"  
  
"Where is she, anyway?"  
  
"Sleeping. Opening the Gate took a lot out of her, I think."  
  
No wonder things had been so pleasant and quiet. They'd been in such a rush she hadn't had the chance to enjoy it. "I somehow doubt that she'd be any use to us here."  
  
During their conversation Hawk had, in the meanwhile, hopped back to the very edge of the precipice once again to inspect the white dragon closer. The Ranger didn't seem quite as fazed by his near brush with death earlier as he should have been.  
  
"I'll try again," Duran suggested. "Father of the Winged ones, if you could-"  
  
This time, the Knight didn't even get to finish before he was once again interrupted by an indignant bray. Hawk, at his close range, didn't even blink - he seemed to be looking the Beast over very carefully. "Um, guys," he coughed. "I think I found your problem. I think it might, ah, be a girl."  
  
Duran looked very confused. "But how could the FATHER-?"  
  
Angela harrumphed before another indignant bray could rip forth and they wound up insulting their only ride to the Holyland away from them. "The legend must be mistaken. After all, it came from the Fairy, the thing's probably a thousand years out of date!"  
  
"Well, I think she's too pretty to be called the 'Father' of anything! We need a better name for you!" Hawk said, stroking the soft fur on the side of the dragon face. It closed its eyes, purring blissfully.  
  
"Jeez! Are you a sucker for ANY cute girl?" Angela rolled her eyes.  
  
"As you should well know, Angie, I prefer women over girls."  
  
Throwing up her hands in defeat, the Delvar turned her attention to the Knight. "Duran, any ideas for what to call her?" Angela asked, switching her attention from the dragon to the Knight.  
  
"Um.... Mother of the Winged Ones?" Duran suggested helpfully.  
  
"Never mind. Hawk?"  
  
"How about Sherri?" Hawk suggested with a wicked grin, while the Princess resisted the urge to blanch. Trust the thief to use the show name he had used for her on their impromptu visit to the Black Market. He just wouldn't let it go.  
  
"Winged One, maybe?" Duran wondered in the background.  
  
"Forget it! I know! We'll call you Flammie! How do you like that?" Angela announced, cautiously stepping up to join Hawk in front of the dragon, patting its nose affectionately.  
  
The higher pitched bray that followed sounded much more positive. Okay, so they'd made friends with the oversized flying kitten then. Time to stop lollygagging and make their way to the Mana Holyland already!  
  
"It's settled! Then, Flammie, do you think you could take us to the Mana Holyland? It's very important!" Angela beseeched her urgently.  
  
No more was needed to be asked. Gracefully circling in the air before them, the young white dragon - she looked to be just a kid, it was entirely possible that the drum WAS just a toy - offered her back to them to climb on.  
  
Blowing a lavendar strand of hair from her face, the Delvar steeled her resolve. 'Here goes nothing.' She clambered onto the dragon's back with Hawk, the two of them having to help the slightly less agile Duran on board as well, the Knight clutching uncertainly at the tufts of orange fur that adorned their free ride's head. Hawk steadied him, taking his seat behind him, Angela settling in at the back, not trusting the thief's roaming hands. The three of them fit comfortably enough; it was possible that the ride might be a little smoother than their often precarious ride on Booskaboo.  
  
That thought disappeared out the window the instant Flammie gave one flap of all four of her powerful wings and took off, though. Lurching back from the unexpected acceleration, the Princess desperately reached for the nearest handhold she could, clutching on for dear life. The trio hunkered down onto the dragon's back, wind whistling past at such a speed that Angela found it hard to believe it wouldn't rip her skin off. Squinting against the cold wind as their steed rose into the clouds, already the Delvar could spy the distant glowing ring of the Gate to the Mana Holyland up ahead - and it was coming close quick. How fast WAS this dragon anyway? What took Booskaboo half a day was taking Flammie ten minutes! Was the so- called 'Father of the Winged Ones' powered by Mana itself?  
  
"The Gate's coming up ahead! Hang on!" Duran warned, as the winds seemed to grow more tumultuous the closer they neared the giant portal. What did he mean, hang on? More than she already was? Let this crazy ride be over already!  
  
The Gate loomed large - from below, the size to which it had grown hadn't seemed so significant, but up here, about to enter it, it dwarfed even Flammie. Angela unconsciously drew a breath and squeezed her eyes shut as as they passed through into the Gate. When she next opened them they were floating in a clear blue sky above a sea of clouds with heavenly lights and a cresent moon visible above them. Poking up out of the clouds rested a lush island dominated by massive trees and broken by a spiderweb of tranquil creeks.  
  
It was breath-taking. This..... this must be the Mana Holyland.  
  
"I thought it would have been bigger," she commented to no one in particular.  
  
Through the thick foliage, there was only one clearing at one end of the island, so Duran directed Flammie to drop them off there. The white dragon gracefully descended, decelerating and dropping clumsily to the ground. Thankful that she at least didn't suffer motion sickness, she shakily disembarked with the others - the white dragon didn't wait for much more than a pat before taking back off into the sky again, clearly unnerved by something about the atmosphere here.  
  
"Have a nice ride, Angie?" Hawk asked as the Princess tried to get herself back in order.  
  
Trying to hide her blush and failing miserably, Angela at last realised that when Flammie had rocketed off like that and she had grabbed for the nearest anchor, that anchor had been Hawk. He was currently smoothing out the wrinkles caused by her grip on the front of his tunic.  
  
"What happened here?" Duran asked, apprently missing the exchange altogether.  
  
Turning, the Princess barely concealed her gasp as she was faced with yet another battlefield. Beastmen, Altenan soliders, and Navarre ninjas scattered about indiscriminately, all badly wounded or dead; some even maimed or charred beyond recognition. Some of these were her countrypeople......  
  
At least this time, she didn't have the urge to throw up at the scene, no matter how wrong it appeared to have such a slaughter on such holy ground. Hawk, apparently, still had his stomach of steel, grimly walking up and checking over some of the nearest corpses. "They can't have died more than an hour or two ago. The battle here must have lasted for quite a while."  
  
"Then I have a chance," Duran stated with firm conviction. He fingered the hilt of his sword lightly.  
  
"Excuse me, what's with this 'I' business?" Angela asked sceptically, hefting her crystal rod for emphasis.  
  
The Knight turned and bowed to the pair. "I am very sorry, but the Fairy has told me that this is one journey I must take alone. This is part of my trials to become the Mana Knight. I can't rely on you for that. But don't worry, I will go retrieve the Mana Sword, and I will return. If you could hold this clearing for our escape?"  
  
"What-? Duran, you can't possibly be meaning to go ALONE?!" the Delvar exclaimed in disbelief.  
  
The Fairy decided to at last break her silence to emerge - much to everyone's disappointment - and make her views known again. "Only the Mana Knight can greet the Goddess. That's the rules. I'm afraid Duran and I must continue on alone from this point. We thank you for your support," the Fairy quoted, as if she was reading from some 'Protocol of the Mana Sword' textbook.  
  
"But...." Even Hawk seemed upset by the idea.  
  
The thief didn't get the chance to finish. Duran bowed once more, then ran out of the clearing, the Fairy leading the way. Just like that, the Knight was gone. The trio and a half, was suddenly down to two.  
  
The Princess was overcome with shock for one long moment. Finally, she regained her composure enough to snap, "Well, that's just rude!" Eyeing the thief, she realised belatedly that this now meant she was stuck here with HIM. "And they left me here all alone with YOU, too!"  
  
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Angie?" the thief asked with a wink, deftly dodging the swinging cane that followed a moment later.  
  
"Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself! I would not taint my royal purity with street trash like you!" 'Royal purity' might have been overdoing it, but the point was made.  
  
"I suppose you're right. Lowly street trash like I can only ever hope to dream of ever being seduced by such a diamond!" the thief gestured grandly, bowing before her. Angela felt one eyebrow twitch with annoyance - was he being sarcastic again? "I suppose I will simply have to restrain myself!"  
  
That had to be sarcasm. She hadn't seen an ounce of restraint from the Navarrian yet.  
  
"Stuck here with the world's biggest ego with the menial task of guarding a clearing!" she complained yet again. "I come all the way to the Mana Holyland and THIS is the reward?"  
  
"Indeed," Hawk agreed, looking up to the sky. "After all, we didn't come here for the Mana Sword. We only came to keep Duran company and get our wishes from the Mana Goddess."  
  
The Princess blinked. That was right. Since when had she agreed to any orders from the Fairy anyway? She had been so shocked at the prospect of being suddenly abandoned by her handsome Knight that the thought to disagree hadn't even crossed her mind. "This is true. And that big lug Duran will probably get lost with only the Fairy's useless directions."  
  
"Not to mention, there's no enemies here, if we walk through the Holyland we're more likely to encounter some more and be of some use," Hawk supplemented, white teeth flashing in a quick grin.  
  
"And even if we don't, there's nothing wrong with going to see the Goddess on our own. After all, we only came all this way to get our wishes," the Delvar continued.  
  
There was a brief silence. The Princess of Altena felt herself smiling as well, now.  
  
"Shall we go?" the Ranger asked, extending his arm to her.  
  
Ignoring the offered arm, Angela gripped her cane, and skipped ahead of the thief. "Do you even need to ask?"  
  
The Princess and the thief quickly made their way in the direction they had seen the Knight disappear in. The clearing gave way to lush foliage of such proportions it seemed impossible. The trees here were clearly hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Scattered throughout the greenery also seemed to be the remains of some marble ruins - as they followed a rough pathway between the shrubbery the Delvar even caught glimpses of platforms and large columns, most of which were crumbling or stood at strange angles, vines wrapped elaborately around the structures. What they didn't see much of, though, were the many Beastmen, Navarre ninjas and Altenan soldiers that they expected to come across; theoretically, they probably had a significant head start. Duran had to be insane to think he could still make it to the Sword before them.  
  
There were, however, plenty of rabites, it seemed.  
  
"You know," the Princess of Altena said in a conversational tone, relaxing against a moss-covered rock. "This Mana Holyland isn't that bad. It's kind of pretty. Wouldn't be a bad place for a brief holiday."  
  
Hawk grunted in irritation as he produced his short swords out of nowhere - how DID he do that? - and proceeded to attack the horde of gathered rabites blocking the way. This was the third lot they had encountered; it seemed as though the deeper they entered the Holyland the more plentiful they became. "Tell me that once all these irritating little critters are gone." Angela proceeded to examine her nails while Hawk jumped in and out of the crazy rabite-creature-like things - they were a lot harder to kill than ordinary rabites it seemed, the darn things were getting far too intelligent for comfort, but he was killing as many as he could. Finally, sick of the Princess' idleness, he said, "Hey Angie, why don't you stop admiring your manicure and use some of your magic to help me out here?"  
  
The girl shrugged, looking bored, holding out a hand and casting a weak Holy Ball. A few fell to the ground, momentarily stunned, whilst others kept leaping en masse after a frustrated and increasingly harried Hawk who parried their attacks with a speed that wasn't entirely human. "Angie! A weak spell like that isn't going to do anything!"  
  
'Angie', though, was concerned with other things at that moment. "Why DID Duran think he could just stalk off like that? Thinks he can find the Mana Sword all by himself? I think not! Bloody hot-shot swordsmen, misogynistic pig won't let a woman help him out, even when it's a mighty sorceress like myself!"  
  
"ANGELA!"  
  
"Huh?" Angela snapped out of her monologue to see Hawk completely surrounded by psycho rabites, about to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. "Oh!" Holding out her staff, she called upon Salamando and blasted half of them away with a series of powerful fireballs. With that assistance, the ninja made short work of the others. Once all the monsters within that particular clearing were dead, or fleeing for their sorry little lives, Hawk finally was able to clean off his knives and sheathe them, trying to catch his breath and glaring at the Princess.  
  
"What took you so long?"  
  
"Is it my fault that you're so incompetent that you can't handle a bunch of rabites by yourself?"  
  
The thief scowled. "I believe these are silktails. They're a lot faster, stronger, and have sharper teeth that a rabite. I would think someone who knew what a misogynist was would know that."  
  
Angela put on a look of mock surprise. "The lowly desert thief keeps up his vocabulary! I'm impressed, I thought you'd have heard 'chauvinistic' much more often."  
  
Hawk smiled wryly. "I'll take that a compliment."  
  
Now that the local wildlife was out of the way, the Princess stretched and regarded the pathway in front of them - it seemed to split off into three entirely separate directions. "So then, genius, which was is it to the Mana Sword? It'd take forever to check all of them, and considering we're playing catch up, we have to guess right first time and hope no one else did."  
  
Appearing thoughtful and taking a few steps down each path, the Ranger finally turned back to her and asked with a widening grin, "Well, what does your magic tell you, Angie?"  
  
Frowning, the Delvar delved into her magical senses, probing for any significant differences. It was useless to make sense of it - there was simply too much Mana swarming about here to differentiate. Cutting it off, she replied irritably, "It's impossible. Not even the most seasoned magicians would be able to make sense of anything in this place."  
  
Shaking his head, Hawk replied, "Not that magic, Angie. I mean tap into your connection with the Elementals!"  
  
Confused, she followed his suggestion, closing her eyes and tapping into the bond that had formed with the Elementals when they received each of their blessings. Some of the bonds were stronger than the others, and among the strongest, suddenly the swirl of Mana around her became clear, as though a path had opened before them. Opening her eyes suddenly, the Princess begrudgingly admitted to herself the desert rat occasionally had some good ideas. "It's that way," she pointed to the path leading off to their right.  
  
"I agree. Let's hurry. We might be able to make it after all."  
  
So that was the significant difference, then. Those they sought to outrun would quickly become lost in the vast expanse of the Mana Holyland, even if their magical senses were highly refined such as in Koren's case. Without the blessing and guidance of the Elementals or the Fairy, finding the Sword was a tedious task that was simply brought down to a simple clearing-by- clearing search. And the Holyland was a big place.  
  
"Say, Hawk," she asked, picking her way over the rocks over an icy-cold stream. Stuttering awkwardly and mentally cursing herself for it, she continued, "Why are you so intent on greeting the Goddess? I mean, your wish is..... well....."  
  
Angela immediately berated herself for even bringing the topic up. Even more so when the thief visibly stiffened. Finally, he replied in a strained voice, "To be honest, I heard that the Goddess could grant ANY wish. I thought maybe.... Jessica could....."  
  
Eyes widening in surprise, it was all the Delvar could do not to trip over her own feet from shock. Hawk wanted to ask the Goddess to..... bring Jessica back to life?! She had thought that the thief had come to terms with her death, but appeared not all was healed.  
  
"I.... I don't think that even the Goddess would do it. I mean, there wasn't even a body.... but even if there's a chance...." Trying to shrug it off, he turned to her and asked, "What about you, Angie?"  
  
It seemed a little paltry after Hawk's heartfelt cause, but she replied carelessly regardless. "The same as it's always been."  
  
"Ah, but don't you already have your magic?" he asked, hopping across another one of the crystal clear creeks effortlessly.  
  
"It's not enough to defeat Koren yet. I have to be sure. There's no second chances with the Wizard of the Red Lotus."  
  
"What about Duran? He got a second chance, didn't he?"  
  
"It's DURAN," she stated, as though it were obvious.  
  
"Come to think of it," Hawk observed, "I haven't seen any evidence of his usual havok-wreaking on this path. Are you sure we're going the right way?"  
  
Angela snorted. "Fairy probably got them lost."  
  
Regardless, the pair ceased their conversation to pick up the pace, speeding through the Holyland, deftly handling any silktails that dared bar their way, blindly following the insistent tug of the Elemental's directions leading them to the Mana Sword. Their fighting style had to change significantly without the power of Duran's broadsword making the decisive blows; Angela found herself using economical spells to stun their opponents, then dropping back to protect Hawk's flank as he went in for the kill. Even the small group of Beastmen they had come across had been made short work of.  
  
After about an hour of this travelling, the Princess found her exhaustion beginning to catch up with her - even though she'd been reluctant to use much power in her spells for fear of tiring out too quickly, her feet were beginning to drag. Even Hawk wasn't moving quite as quickly as he normally did.  
  
"How much longer to this Sword?" she complained, stopping for a moment to pick a burr out of the sole of her shoes. She really ought to think about getting some tougher boots sometime soon - the largely cloth invention that was popular throughout Altena was not conducive for travel in forest-like environments.  
  
"I thought you were enjoying my company, Angie. So anxious to leave me already?"  
  
"I've been anxious since we first met!"  
  
"You wound me."  
  
"I can if you really want me to!" she offered, gripping her cane for emphasis. At least without the Knight around, she could react to the Navarrian however she liked and not have to worry about him taking it the wrong way.  
  
"Hey, isn't that Duran up ahead?" Think, and the Forcenan will appear. Hawk pushed his way through the last of the brush, the pair tumbling into a clearing where the Mana Hero and his lackey Fairy were standing. They turned at the commotion, Duran visibly tensing then relaxing as he saw the lack of threat. He caught the expression on the Princess's face and tensed again.  
  
Fortunately for the Knight, Angela was currently too overwhelmed by the sight in front of her to remember to be indignant at being left behind. A small river, then beyond that, the most massive tree she had ever seen. The span of its canopy could have covered the entire of Altena's palace. The trunk was thicker than most houses. Its majesty defied all forms of description.  
  
"This.... this is the Mana tree....," she breathed, more to herself than anyone else. There was no doubt in her mind. There was nothing else it could be. Her eyes flicked to the glint of light from in front of the Knight. Embedded in one of the tree's many protruding roots, resting in the centre of the stream was a simple sword with an elaborate hilt. Though its appearance was nothing terribly spectacular, the power that one object radiated was nearly palatable.  
  
She finally noticed the Knight staring at them in something of shock - even his good looks were dwarfed by this place. Recollecting herself, she barked out, "Duran! What's the big idea, running off on your own like that?! Have some respect!"  
  
"Ah- um- that is," he stuttered, helplessly looking to the Fairy to clear things up.  
  
Full of righteous indignation, the tiny deity complained, "What are you two doing here? This doesn't follow protocol at all! Your presence here is completely against the rules!"  
  
Angela rolled her eyes at that. "Do you think WE care about rules? Remember who you're talking to! Exiled Princess and a professional thief! Clearly rules have been thrown out of the window long ago!" In Hawk's case, most of his life. Come to think of it, probably in her case too, she admitted guiltily, though skipping class and robbing travellers wasn't exactly in the same category.  
  
"They have a point, Fairy," Duran agreed.  
  
Grumbling to herself, she conceded, "Fine, but be quiet! Now, Duran, draw the Sword!"  
  
Nodding, the Knight carefully navigated his way along the tree root to where the Sword was embedded. He grasped the hilt and pulled. Nothing happened. He tugged harder, and almost fell backward into the clear stream that swirled beneath him. "It's stuck!"  
  
"Oh, brother," Angela covered her face in embarrassment. "The Mana Sword itself isn't going to come loose just by tugging on it! Tap into your bond with the Elementals and the Stones!"  
  
"Um, that's right! You can do it, Duran! Just concentrate - like when you class changed!" the Fairy backed up, shooting the Princess a dirty look for stealing her job.  
  
Nodding affirmatively, the Knight faced the Sword again, closing his eyes. Angela and Hawk unconsciously followed suite, feeling the energy of the Elementals, the Mana Tree and the Sword change from the angry swirl to a calming river. Ever so slowly, Duran reached out to grasp the hilt of the Sword. The Delvar and Ranger opened their eyes as the Knight pulled it free from its bonds in the tree, the bark seeming to almost give way like water. The instant the blade slid completely free, it caught the sunlight, sending out a blinding flash of light.  
  
Several moments later, the spots still being blinked out of her eyes, Angela allowed herself to fall out of the trance she'd entered in the fond hopes of supporting Duran. Before them stood the Mana Knight, Mana Sword in hand, in all of his glory. He seemed almost like a different person now - as though he had class changed, or gained a new form of confidence that they couldn't begin to comprehend.  
  
Damn, it was attractive.  
  
After a moment, though, she noticed that the expression on the Mana Knight's face was not one of victory or success, but merely confusion.  
  
A moment later, she realised why.  
  
"Where is the Fairy?"  
  
_____________________  
  
Tada! Please take a moment to review for this lonely fish. Hopefully, next chapter will be on time. Whatever 'on time' is anymore. 


	35. Chase the Fairynappers!

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. I don't know what I should warn for this one – bit of violence and death if anything, I suppose.  
  
Author's note: Tada! I'm NOT dead! (Gasps.) Sorry AGAIN for the lateness of this chapter – I wasn't quite happy with finishing it where I did, but I wasn't going to make you guys wait any longer. My excuse of the week is computer troubles. Though technically, thanks to keyboard shortcuts, I probably COULD have written the chapter without a monitor, but I figured that might compromise quality, you know, more than usual. But all is well, and my computer has a nice new monitor that doesn't require a bashing every eleven minutes to work. Hopefully this means the next chapter won't be as late, but then, don't hold your breath, I seem to be a highly unreliable person recently. Oh, the shame!  
  
Response to the Reviewers!:  
  
James the Phox: Hey! I remember you! Thanks for the tips on Kevin, but considering his utter lack of presence, it might never come to fruition. Your review was great, made me laugh. You were almost right about the final class changes – we voted on them WAAAAY back, Duran's will be Paladin, Angela's a Magus, and Hawk a Rogue (mostly thanks to the enthusiasm of Rosa Aquafire, I believe. I swear she rigged the vote.) I do get writer's block – except I call it University. And computer troubles. And hunger. Stuff like that. Anyhow, such great musings in this review were to be had that I don't think it will be a problem. LOL, love your E-Mail (though don't tell Kurai about it). No, Duran's light classes don't learn Dryad or Lunar magic – aside from Cure he only gets Saint Sabre for Paladin. Swordmaster (Dark/Light) gets Leaf Sabre and Moon Sabre, though. Thanks for a great review, it was a doozy.  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: Welcome back! Throwing arrows is like throwing really short spears, I'd imagine (not like I've tried or anything...*cough cough*). Thanks for the review.  
  
Wingnut: I have a mental calendar for when I can get each chapter finished. Theoretically, since it is all in my head, I can be 'on time' all the time! Whee! Yeah, I always thought the Elementals were kind of weak, but Truewind does such a good job explaining it in his fic that I leave it well alone in this one. (Screams) Keep the 'Sues back! Thanks for the review. (So weird to only talk to one of you....)  
  
WaterDragonerS: Yeah, I wasn't happy about the Sword bit either, but I can't be funny ALL the time, that puts stress on the humour gland. Strange, Wingnut's crowd shrinks and yours grows larger... (stares) Thanks for the review...  
  
Just Call Me Angels: Woot! More grabbage ahead! Enjoy.  
  
Slash the Ironman: Uh oh, I may have shot myself in the foot there... Thanks for the review.  
  
Freeloader: Happy happy happy dance! Well, there goes my hope for cheap DVDs... Thanks for the review! Relish the laziness, relish it!  
  
Wings of Lead: Hmm, Flammie eating Angela's hair... I like it! All good ideas on revenge. Wow, I think you were reading my mind towards the end there. You must be psychic. I'm reporting you to the FBI. Now I have to change everything! LOL, thanks for the review as always.  
  
Feyenal Dragon: I tried to throw in some more Hawk and Angie moments, you can decide how they went for yourself. Hope you enjoy it. Good luck on your fic!  
  
Mig-31: Haven't decided how to deal with Dangaard yet, I was thinking about skipping a few of the God-Beasts for story flow and stuff, but if people really want to see all of them, I can think of a few things... (Begins studying physics of four-winged dragons). Thanks for the review, always highly insightful!  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: There's a special place in hell for people who write cliffhangers, and by the sounds of it, we've both acquired a place there! At least I won't be a lonely fish. (Chews fingers nervously). Koren makes his appearance at last! (Looks for escape).  
  
Lone Ronin: YES! Someone picked up on one of my obscure quotes! I am a big fan of Bone. I should give you a prize or something. Shadow zeros, unfortunately, don't turn up until MUCH later in the game. They ARE annoying, though. Thanks for your review!  
  
Thundaga: You and me both. Sure, self-promote shameless, heck, I do it, everyone else does it.... The SD fandom is shrinking a little these days I guess... maybe Sword of Mana will reawaken it though.  
  
^_^: Oh yeah... Carlie.... She's still back in the Forest of Wonder somewhere, isn't she? Lol, read the chapter to find out! Hope you like it.  
  
Cookie Pixie: Eeek, don't kill me! I can explain that – Hawk is a Ranger, that was just a stupid typo that I'll have to make a point to fix – I was working on another SD3 fic before writing that part in which Hawk WAS a ninja, so I had ninjas on the brain. (Hits self on head.) I picked up most of them in the proofread, but that one must have slipped through. Hey yeah, halfway! And you're still here! Thank you, Cookie Pixie!  
  
TheOneAndOnlyT: Shameless disregard for general plot. I admit it. In fact, I think I occasionally even advertise it. Hawk and Angela romance is coming really soon now (rubs hands gleefully). Next couple of chapters are going to be fun.... Thanks for your review!  
  
Whoa, long response to reviews today... thank you very much for all your reviews, they help keep me inspired to keep writing what is turning into a very long fic... Thanks for your patience, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 35 – Chase the Fairy-nappers!  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
"Fairy?" Duran asked uncertainly, carefully making his way back to dry land, Mana Sword in hand.  
  
The irritating gnat was nowhere to be seen. More importantly, nowhere to be heard, which was a clear indication all on its own that she wasn't anywhere nearby.  
  
Thus the Fairy was just gone. Vanished. But they had only closed their eyes for a moment, surely! There was no way she could be so completely gone in such a short amount of time!  
  
"Maybe now that we have the Mana Sword, she isn't needed anymore?" Angela suggested, fervently hoping it was true.  
  
"But.... we still don't know what we're supposed to do with the Sword," Duran replied.  
  
"I suppose you're right. And I can't see that irritating little gnat leaving us without a big flashy farewell and parting lecture," she admitted, blowing a stray strand of hair from her face.  
  
'Please....' a voice sounded throughout their minds.  
  
Whirling, certain that the Fairy was just playing a trick on them, they were confronted by emptiness once again. "Where did that come from?" Angela asked, looking about furtively.  
  
'Please....' the voice repeated. A moment later, an ethereal being materialised before them. No, an ethereal being didn't do this vision justice. This, was a Goddess.  
  
Wait, a Goddess?  
  
'Mana Knight.... chosen champions..... hear me,' the spectre pleaded, floating in front of the Mana tree, surrounded by an ethereal light.  
  
"Well, I just found someone out of my league," Hawk murmured to himself.  
  
"Goddess!" Duran said, quickly dropping to one knee.  
  
'Duran.... Mana Knight..... the Fairy has been taken by the darkness. She is in danger. I beseech you - you must save her! It is more important than anything else!'  
  
"That gnat? Important?" Immediately, Angela regretted her words. She was standing in front of the GODDESS, for Goddess's sake. This was the kind of being you didn't generally argue with.  
  
Fortunately for the Princess, the Goddess seemed to be the understanding sort. 'The Fairy's safety is the most important. I urge you to hurry to her. In the face of this darkness, I fear I do not have to strength to save her myself. I ask you, chosen champions, to go in my stead. Save the Fairy, and Mana, from the darkness. Save this world!'  
  
Well, it would be very difficult to say 'no' to a speech like that, even if it WASN'T the Goddess asking them. At least this explained where the Fairy was. Somehow, in that brief interlude while Duran drawing the Mana Sword had distracted them all, the useless gnat had been kidnapped.  
  
"We will, Goddess. With your blessing and the Sword, we shall succeed," Duran promised, standing and thumping his right hand to his chest whole- heartedly.  
  
The Goddess smiled at them, just once, and vanished from sight. 'I thank you.... and give you my blessing.'  
  
Angela was still feeling a little shaken over actually MEETING the Goddess, and standing right here in front of the Mana Tree itself. She'd been heading out to do it for a while now, but to actually BE here.... well, she simply hadn't thought that far ahead. Duran, however, didn't seem perturbed at all, and was already striding out of the clearing, heading back the way they came.  
  
"Ack! Wait!" The Delvar scurried after the Knight, half-tripping over her feet as she did so. There was a steely resolve in the Knight's eyes now - a new emotion that she hadn't seen before. He was different. He was apart from them, now. The Mana Sword had given him something new.  
  
A moment later, he paused, turning to look back at them, somewhat hopelessly. "Uh, where do you think they took her?"  
  
Then again, he was still Duran.  
  
Fortunately, Hawk had been thinking ahead, saving them the trouble. "We should head to the main clearing."  
  
"Why there?" Angela asked curiously.  
  
"They're going to have to go back there if they plan on leaving the Holyland. If they're not there yet, they will be," he stated confidently.  
  
The Forcenan seemed to agree, nodding his affirmation and started marching straight back the way they had come, once again forcing an already tired Angela and Hawk to keep up. Where DID the Knight get his tireless drive from?  
  
The Holyland too, was different as they returned. It had grown even quieter, not even a rustle in the bushes to signify that the hordes of silktails that had accosted them earlier still existed. An eerie pall had settled over the entire holy continent, it seemed, not broken until they caught sight of a familiar black cloak and head of pink hair.  
  
"What-?" Angela had barely breathed out the exclamation when the Ranger had his short swords in his hands, launching himself forward. However, to everyone's surprise, he skidded to a shocked stop in front of the all-too- familiar Bigieu and Jagan.  
  
"Isab- Bigieu?" he stuttered.  
  
The Delvar and Knight finally caught up to the Navarrian, to see what had halted their ally in his tracks so. Angela bit her lip suddenly. It was Bigieu and her little vampiric sidekick all right. What she hadn't expected was all the blood. The temptress that had apparently managed to conquer all of Navarre had clearly come across something stronger than her. Her eyes flitted over several deep wounds the woman had sustained - it was hard to gauge, but it looked like a broadsword had inflicted them. She was beginning to look pale from the loss of blood, and furthermore looked as though she had been trying to heal herself, but was drained of magic.  
  
Jagan, on the other hand, looked as though all sorts of magic had battered him - of what kind she couldn't tell, because apparently he'd attempted to heal himself as well, but his injuries had also been too severe to cope. One didn't have to be a priestess to figure out that both were as good as dead. What by the Goddess had happened?  
  
Hawk turned his head away, dispassionate. Angela watched carefully to see what he'd do, but breathed a sigh of relief when it looked as though the thief, even in revenge, couldn't bring himself to kill his enemy in cold blood when they were clearly going to die anyway.  
  
Duran stepped forward, more pity in his eyes than the Princess had expected. "Tell me, was it you who took the Fairy?"  
  
At last, Bigieu seemed to notice them. She slumped to her knees, completely ignoring the Knight. "Ah, so the exile has arrived. Come to put us out of our misery, have you, Hawk? Here to claim revenge for Navarre and your precious Eagle and Jessica?"  
  
The Ranger tensed, but only replied, "You deserve everything you get."  
  
Duran, annoyed at being ignored, repeated, "Were YOU the ones who took the Fairy?!"  
  
Jagan, clearly weak, muttered, "Bigieu? Should we tell them?"  
  
Breaking down in a melodramatic wail, the woman sobbed, "No! The one who took your Fairy was the same one who killed our Master! Oh, My Beloved Dark Prince!"  
  
Angela sighed. Somehow, it was hard to feel genuinely sorry for these two - they were presenting a pretty pathetic sight. "I hate to see hardened villains cry."  
  
"I rather enjoy it," Hawk murmured, kicking a stray stone nearby. Apparently the thief wasn't big on pity either.  
  
Bigieu, in the meantime, was howling to the sky. "It was all for naught! The children of the shadows rule nothing!"  
  
Jagan was looking a little distraught himself, but put in helpfully, "Um, we rule the shadows, don't we?"  
  
The temptress thought about that for a long minute. ".....Good point."  
  
Trying to force herself to her feet, but failing, she seemed to attempt to reclaim what dignity she had remaining. "We will go to the shadows! I shall go join our mighty Prince, and rule the Underworld with him! Mwa ha ha ha!"  
  
"Mwa ha ha ha!" her sidekick echoed weakly.  
  
Taking a bow, Bigieu, by now clearly delusional, pointed skywards. "We will haunt your every step! Revenge shall be ours! And so now.... we go to join the Dark Prince in the shadows!"  
  
"Whoosh!" Jagan added. Simultaneously, the two dropped to the ground, their final blazing speech of glory sapping the last of their strength.  
  
There was a long silence. Had the Mana Holyland not been so eerily still, they felt a small breeze would have blown by at this point.  
  
"Sad," Angela commented at last, moving on past the fallen pair to the next path. Duran, still with his mission to find their missing tag-along, saluted his opponents briefly as a Knight was expected to do, then hurriedly made his way ahead. Hawk lingered for a moment, staring blankly at the objects of all of his misfortune, then eventually followed as well, though his feet too were beginning to drag.  
  
Having encountered no one other than the pair of world-ruler hopefuls, they were surprised when, drawing quite close to the main clearing, they spied what looked like another familiar figure, though they seemed so insubstantial the Delvar had to blink a few times to make sure she was seeing things clearly.  
  
The Masked Man from the Moon Stone too? What had Lugar called him? Deathjester?  
  
"You!" Duran accused, apparently also unsure of the entity's name as well, and opting for pretending he remembered it. The strangely dressed Necromancer - or at least, they assumed he was a Necromancer, eating souls and all that - turned to face them. Something was very off about him indeed, but it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what. New hat? New shoes, maybe? "Did YOU kidnap the Fairy?"  
  
Shaking his head somewhat sadly, missing all of the crazed enthusiasm and eclectic movement that he had possessed about their previous meeting, which had been akin to the sort of movement associated with rabites on sugar, Deathjester replied, "I am not. I remain here only by that person's wish, though, to deliver a message." He bowed deeply.  
  
By now thoroughly confused, Duran asked, "So, who DID take the Fairy?" The man had a one-tracked mind. No wonder she found it so hard to get his attention. Enjoying the privilege of being able to multi-task, Angela lent one ear to the conversation, and set the other to trying to read the strange magic lingering in the air. It wasn't Mana magic; that was for sure.  
  
"The one who killed my Master was the one who kidnapped your Fairy. He has kept me here only long enough to deliver you this message: He is waiting for you at the entrance to the Holyland." The jester's shoulders drooped, though no other change of expression could be seen through his ridiculous mask. "My time here is done. It appears that I have failed after all...."  
  
At that, Deathjester, too disappeared.  
  
"Just a spirit spectre, kept behind long enough to deliver the message," Angela confirmed grimly, drawing on what little she knew about soul magic. Inwardly, she shuddered. The masked stranger had always made her uneasy, but she still didn't like the idea of dying the way he did. There was no trace of the body nearby - it had probably been completely incinerated by offensive magic.  
  
"Who could be strong enough to beat both Bigieu, Jagan, AND Deathjester?" Hawk asked grimly.  
  
"And not just them, but whoever it was that was holding their leashes," Angela added worriedly, twirling a strand of lavender hair around one finger anxiously. They hadn't come across Koren yet, either, and she was nearly certain that the Wizard of the Red Lotus would have come here himself, rather than send a flunkie. Someone else hadn't beaten her to the job, like Hawk had been beaten to Bigieu and Jagan, had they? This - all of this couldn't POSSIBLY have been Koren alone. The wizard was powerful, but she didn't think he had the power to both dispose of Bigieu and Jagan and then Deathjester. He was far too economic with his magic; even when he had reached the very highest levels of Altena's court, he steadfastedly refused to exhaust himself.  
  
Shaking her head as if to free it of such thoughts, she followed a now- silent Duran with a growing sense of dread settling deep in her stomach. The clearing where Flammie had dropped them off was drawing near. The trio unconsciously moved into a defensive formation as they walked - Duran taking point with Angela and Hawk only a couple of steps behind, shielding his flanks.  
  
There was a small gathering in the clearing ahead, though it was difficult to pick out figures through the leaves marring their view. While still out of sight, they paused, the Delvar's eyes flicking worriedly to the Knight and the Ranger. Duran grimaced, preparing himself for what was looking to be another Dramatic Entry, and before either Angela or Hawk could stop him, he ran into the clearing, stopping and levelling the Mana Sword at the back of their supposed opponent. "You MUST be the ones who took the Fairy this time! Surrender!" he ordered.  
  
Tripping after him hurriedly, Angela didn't break dramatically into the clearing so much as tumble, picking herself off the ground, embarrassed. Hawk apparently learned his lesson from his comrades and took his time walking into the clearing. Once re-orientated, Angela felt her body go stiff as she spied the red cape. It wasn't.... it COULDN'T be....  
  
Koren, Wizard of the Red Lotus and Queen Valda's second-in-command, turned at the sound of their arrival, edges of his scarlet cape brushing the charred grass of the clearing. HE was the one who kidnapped the Fairy?  
  
Well, this was hardly what she had planned. There was Koren, the target of all her -at least violent- ambitions, and she really wasn't ready to face the Wizard of the Red Lotus at all. Certainly not like this. In fact, she'd kind of planned that whenever she decided she was strong enough, she have a nice long bath, maybe even wash her hair, take a good night's sleep through to the middle of the day, have a brunch worthy of royalty THEN take on the Wizard while she was nice and refreshed. This was far, far from that ideal situation. She hadn't slept in days, unless one counted a jolting half-hour nap on the back of a giant turtle as 'sleep', so she was tired and filthy, and just when was the last time she had eaten? And she didn't even want to start thinking about her hair.  
  
Stepping up next to the Red Wizard was another familiar figure, clad entirely in midnight-black armour. Angela felt her eyes narrow as she regarded the pair. She hadn't realized that the Dark Knight and Koren were working together. That would explain things then. As awesome as the tales of the Wizard of the Red Lotus's powers were, she didn't think he was capable of doing everything he had in the Holyland on his own - at least, not in such a short time frame. However, with the Dark Knight and Altena's mages backing him up as well, it was entirely feasible.  
  
"Ah, so these are the so-called 'Mana Heroes'," he said softly, pale eyes journeying over the travel-ragged trio, pausing and lingering on the Altenan Princess. "Princess Angela, what a surprise to see YOU here."  
  
It was all the Delvar could do to maintain her stance, caught somewhere between wanting to attack the enigmatic man and the urge to flee before she did something she regretted. She'd forgotten about the pull of the Red Wizard through the haze of rage and hatred that had accumulated after her exile. His eyes alone could suck you in. His moody demeanour was both alluring and frightening. Angela shook her head desperately to clear it. This was the man she had to kill. Power was an attractive thing; a lesson she'd learnt many times over. She couldn't become confused now. Koren had to die. If she ever wanted to be accepted back into Altena, the man that was surely controlling it from the shadows had to fall! Furthermore, this wasn't just what she wanted - Duran wanted it too, and what better way to her man's heart than helping him with his ambition? She decided to distract herself by wondering how he kept that cape so brilliantly red and still clean. It would be worthwhile information for maintaining her own red dress from fading.  
  
"Red Wizard," Duran growled, "Did you steal the Fairy or not?"  
  
"Oh, you mean this thing?" The wizard reached into the robes of his scarlet cloak, withdrawing his hand a moment later, with a small magical ball glowing brightly - as the haze of light dimmed, the familiar figure of the Fairy could be seen banging on the walls of the magical container, yelling at him.  
  
"I AM NOT A THING! Let me go! This is against all regulations of the Holyland! I'm under the divine protection of the Goddess!" It should have been blindingly apparent by now that Koren clearly didn't care about Holyland protocol, but the Fairy had apparently forgotten that. Could the irritating gnat ever become more of an embarrassment than this? "Duran! Oh, and Angela and Hawk," she added as an afterthought. The Delvar felt an eyebrow quirk. The minute their supposed guide was in trouble she wanted their help again, when it wasn't that long ago at all she'd told her and Hawk to essentially go jump? "What are you waiting for? Help me!"  
  
Duran took a reflexive step forward, Sword drawn and brandished in front of him. He hestitated however, when he noticed Koren's hand tighten around the small globe the Fairy was trapped in. Angela sighed. The Knight, clearly remembering the Goddess's orders, wasn't willing to risk the Fairy's safety even if it meant he got a shot at the Wizard of the Red Lotus. How depressingly noble. She spent a moment debating whether or not SHE should take a potshot at the Wizard regardless, but then the she thought she felt the stirrings of warning from a couple of the Elementals. Sighing, she kept her posture perfectly still, and noticed Hawk doing the same, though to the untrained eye he seemed mostly bored. The stupid Fairy MUST have been important if the Elementals were willing to interfere on her behalf.  
  
"I am afraid," Koren said smoothly, tucking the orb back into the folds of his robes, the yelling becoming muffled and muted by the fabric, "That if you want to see your Fairy alive again, you should come to the Magical Kingdom of Altena, and you should bring the Mana Sword with you."  
  
With no further ado, the Scarlet Wizard gestured casually, and both he and the Dark Knight faded from sight. Moments later, with a rising hum of a distant motor, Altena's airship rose from where it had hidden in the sea of clouds, and disappeared into the horizon, leaving the Holyland behind.  
  
It suddenly felt very cold in the Holyland.  
  
Duran strode forward and slammed the Mana Sword into the ground in frustration. Angela blinked and jumped reflexively at the uncharacteristic display of anger from the normally docile Forcenan. Well, getting the Mana Knight upset probably wasn't a good thing - what did Koren think he was getting himself in to?  
  
"So..... what now?" Hawk asked as the Knight withdrew the sword and hooked it on to his belt next to his regular broadsword.  
  
"What else? The Goddess herself said the Fairy was more important than anything else. We go to Altena," Duran answered firmly.  
  
"Even to risk Koren and the Dark Knight getting the sword?"  
  
The Forcenan hesitated at that, but finally replied, "If we must."  
  
The silence that followed stretched on for an uncomfortable amount of time. Finally, in an attempt to break it, Angela commented offhandedly, "The irritating gnat is SUCH a bother. What kind of emissary from the Holyland gets herself kidnapped right under the Mana Tree's nose?"  
  
There was some small comfort at least in knowing that the Fairy would probably chew Koren's ear out with all of her ranting and raving. Of course, that always left the possibility that Koren would get impatient with the Fairy and, having no orders from the Goddess to hold him back, would probably just kill her. As appealing as the idea was, that would mess up the Goddess's request to no end. Not to mention a niggling thought in the back of her mind was wondering what exactly might be happening with all of those unsealed Mana Stones. Wasn't there something about God-Beasts running loose? THAT couldn't possibly be a good thing.  
  
"I'll call Flammie. There's no point to staying here any longer," Hawk announced, ignoring her comment, producing the small drum and swinging it to let the corded beads bang against it. That was odd, she thought Duran had the drum..... better not to think too hard about it.  
  
Apparently their newly acquired ally hadn't wandered far, as it wasn't even really much of a wait before the oversized flying kitten descended from the sky to land clumsily beside them. The Ranger patted the soft nose of the white dragon absently. "So, where to first, Duran?"  
  
"I thought we already decided to go to Altena," he replied, puzzled.  
  
Hawk sighed. "Do you really think we're in any condition to be going straight to Altena? We need to at least rest somewhere first. Angie looks like she's about to faint where she's standing. And she REALLY needs to wash her hair if she's going to put in an appearance in her home castle."  
  
Too tired to bother arguing, the most the Princess could manage was a disgruntled, "At least no one will recognise me looking like this."  
  
"But...." The Knight seemed reluctant.  
  
"Koren needs the Fairy alive if he wants the Sword. She'll be fine for a day or two. Probably will even keep herself occupied by trying to convert him into the new Mana Knight," Angela sighed, stretching, suddenly keenly interested in the prospect of staying in an inn with REAL amenities.  
  
Thinking this over, Duran finally relented. "Okay, we'll go spend a day in Snow City Elrand before we go to Altena."  
  
"Uh.... is Elrand such a good idea?" she interrupted, gulping at the memory of the death warrant still on her head. Now that there were no Mana Stones left to be unsealed, she doubted she'd have the luxury of being taken alive anymore. It had probably been changed to kill on sight.  
  
"He won't bother us until he has the Mana Sword. You'll be fine," Hawk assured her.  
  
"In other words, getting into Altena won't be the problem - it'll be getting out."  
  
"It'll be fine! That's a thief's speciality!"  
  
"Whatever. Let's just go." The Delvar clambered onto the back of the purring dragon, Duran and Hawk following suit. As Flammie beat her wings a couple of times, Angela once again gripped the nearest object in anticipation of the white dragon's acceleration, once again a grinning Hawk. She mentally berated herself for forgetting the last embarrassing ride and not riding up front, or at least riding behind Duran so she had an excuse to cling on to the handsome Knight.  
  
"Shut up! This is just so if we fall off I can use you as a landing cushion!"  
  
"I don't protest having a beautiful woman fall on top of me ever," he replied with a wink as the dragon rose into the air.  
  
Angela attempted to retort, but her words were whisked away by the wind as Flammie accelerated, zooming low over the sea of white clouds that seemed to stretch on forever. Fortunately this time, it seemed that Flammie was not going to perform her incredible feat of speed that they had first been subjected - though they were probably still in a sort of hurry, this was hardly a case where minutes counted, so they could afford to let the dragon fly at a leisurely stroll that didn't rip their skin off. Which was still plenty fast. The Princess wondered if she'd ever be able to bring herself to travel by boat again.  
  
As they passed through the Gateway, though, an odd thought occurred to Angela: They had never even got a chance to ask for their wishes.  
  
It would be an interesting story one day. She could just see it now. 'Oh, I went to Mana Holyland once.'  
  
'Really, what did you wish for?'  
  
'Well, about that.....'  
  
Regardless, the Princess breathed a sigh of relief when they passed through the Gateway back to the sea above the Island of Oblivion once more. Flammie wheeled to the north, heading towards the distant white icecaps of Altena. It was late afternoon - how long had they been in the Mana Holyland? Then again, given the nature of the Holyland, it was entirely possible that time passed differently there. Hopefully not drastically so.  
Regardless, at least this would hopefully avoid too much dragon-lag, a phenomena she had not yet even considered until now. If riding Booskaboo could throw your system out, she hated to consider what the high-speed travel of a white dragon would do to her sleeping patterns.  
  
Oh yes, sleep. Something she was very much looking forward to right now.  
  
As if reading her mind, Hawk called out, "Don't doze off yet, Angie! We're here!"  
  
Blinking repeatedly, unable to fathom the thought that she'd nearly managed to take a nap a couple of hundred metres in the air, the Princess spied the snow fields passing beneath as they descended gracefully to the frosty beach outside of Elrand. Flammie landed slightly clumsily on the sand, and dipped her wings to allow them to disembark easily. Duran patted her on the nose affectionately. "We'll need your help tomorrow, okay? But you can go rest and have fun tonight."  
  
With a bray and a soft butt of her head in farewell, the white dragon flapped her giant aqua-tipped wings and took off again. It sure was cute.  
  
Meanwhile, Hawk was busy hugging himself and hopping up and down in a futile effort to conserve body heat. "I had forgotten how freezing this place is! Hey, Angie, want me to keep you warm?"  
  
"I'll be fine," she replied dryly, straightening her clothes just a little, just in case someone from the army might see her looking like a total wreck. This would utterly destroy her image of the finely groomed Princess she'd tried so hard for so long to achieve if word got around that she was looking like this. She'd never get even any money-grubbing suitors, much less Duran!  
  
The Navarrian had quickly located his still-insufficient winter attire from somewhere he'd kept it on his person, but was still shivering. "Is it me, or is it even colder this time?"  
  
"We won't have to deal with much of it. It'll be warm inside the inn, and hopefully with Flammie we won't have to walk all the way through the Sub- Zero Snowfields," Duran comforted, though he didn't look much warmer himself.  
  
"Honestly, you're a pair of babies! Take the cold like men!" She ordered, stalking down the path towards the inn, not even bothering to mask the eagerness in her step. Well, it WAS colder this time around, but that probably had more to do with the approaching onset of winter in these parts, rather than Mana, right?  
  
"Are you sure they'll let us back in the inn after what happened last time?" Hawk wondered, striding to catch up, rubbing his hands together.  
  
"We'll just have to find out," Duran reasoned philosophically.  
  
As they arrived at the inn, however, they noticed one significant difference: Outside the small building now stood a sign saying 'Princess Angela once stayed here.'  
  
The Princess in question was fuming. "I can't believe that darn innkeeper would cash in on my downfall like that!"  
  
"Well, I guess that answers our question," Hawk announced, hurrying to get inside. He slapped the appropriate amount of gold on the table in front of the dozing innkeeper. "Three for the night, my good man!"  
  
Startled awake, the owner barely had a chance to catch a glimpse of his guests before they disappeared into the next room. Calling after them, he yelled out, "Have a nice day! Breakfast is complimentary!"  
  
"Hear that, Angela? Breakfast won't care what your hair looks like!" the Ranger commented gleefully as Duran sat down tiredly on the bed, holding the Mana Sword contemplatively in his lap.  
  
Glaring and swiping at the agile thief ineffectively with her crystal rod, the Princess stalked off to the baths. "You do whatever you want, but I'M going to go have a bath," she declared.  
  
"Anything I want? Does that mean I'm allowed to watch?"  
  
"HOLY BALL!"  
  
The Navarrian ducked reflexively, but all present were surprised when a pitifully small amount of holy magic shot past, splashing harmlessly against the wall, leaving little more than a faint singe. Well, THAT was pathetic. She hadn't cast a Holy Ball that weak since she'd first acquired the darn magic. Rubbing at her temples, she muttered to herself as she made her way into the bathhouse, "I must be more tired than I thought." She'd get the thief back tomorrow.  
  
This bath was going to be the most heavenly thing she'd ever experienced. It would leave the Holyland itself in the dust.  
  
_____________________  
  
Please review. Really. Reviews remind me to write the next chapter. I would probably forget otherwise. 


	36. What's the Going Exchange Rate for Mana ...

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Also in warning – generally depreciating overall lack of funny. Those prone to cringing should proceed with caution.  
  
Author's note: You deserve an excuse for the sad length of time between updates, but if you're anywhere near as paranoid as I am, you'll just be convinced it's all an elaborate lie anyway. Thanks for your patience. I had a panic attack when I noticed a slew of curiously timed reviews pouring in, reminding me of my recent lack of time perception, so I got to work on this chapter right away! Thus, maybe some of the quality suffers. Sorry, I'm human, as much as the FBI thinks otherwise. Hope you guys are more forgiving than the FBI, too.  
  
Response to the Reviewers!:  
  
FrickinEvilPoptart: In the darkest part of the game indeed, I intend to laden the humour a little more thickly in the next bunch of chapters, humour gland being willing. GASP! You haven't beaten SD3? That's.... terribly depressing. Of course the balloons were awesome, but they're FAR too easy to make fun of. (Laughs) Your reviews always crack me up, though I would thank you to refrain from stealing my toothbrush. (Waves away any reviewing guilt).  
  
Wings of Lead: As usual, thank you so much for your review – you always notice the really important parts of the chapter. (Laughs) The 8-bit theatre thing sounded hilarious, if I did cameos. If nothing else, I might do a one-shot with it sometime, or maybe you could do one? (Come on, flood the SD3 section with one-shots, flood it! You know you want to. Whee!) Thanks as usual for your musing, it gives me so many ideas, directly or not. Hope you like the chapter.  
  
Terra-Sama: Actually, I beg to differ! Ado is an actual word! Now you can become a world-champion Scrabble-player! Especially seeing as you can actually spell 'adieu' (rarer than you think). Thanks for the review.  
  
Just Call Me Angels: I'd hate to make you wait, but this probably isn't ending until it's about fifty chapters (makes face). I would hold a competition to see which of you or FrickinEvilPoptart is the biggest perv, but I am afraid of the mayhem that may result. Hmm, 'babies', 'boobies', both probably work in that context. Thanks for the review!  
  
WaterDragonerS: Yes, a lousy chapter title, I knew. It was kind of last minute. I shall endeavour to improve. (No promises) Thanks for the review!  
  
Slash the Ironman: (Painful images of a shot kneecap). Ow.  
  
ThunDaGa: Hey, that makes TWO of us who are running out of things to say! I'm not alone! Woot!  
  
Shin-Ryu Warrior: Thanks for dropping a review and I hope you like this chapter.  
  
Lone Ronin: I try to read and review all of my reviewer's work out of courtesy if nothing else, but some don't write in any fandom I read in (which kind of destroys the point). Not to worry, Mana Beast of Moon and Wind, and most definitely Fire, will all be written. At this stage, the only one I've definitely skipped actually writing the battle for will be the Mana Beast of Light. And I had the party touch down in Altena because they really needed to sleep and eat, and I needed a place to finish the chapter. Thanks for your review!  
  
Feyenal Dragon: Wow, thanks for the high praise! (Blushes – Ack, facial capillaries wide open!).  
  
Solarious: Long time no see! Lucky for you, I find the idea of drool on my shoes highly unappealing (however, begging is always acceptable) LOL, kidding. Ah, the 'Evil' and 'Parents' all in one sentence philosophy. I see. I hope this evil has been adequately smited for you sake. Yeah, Rosa seems to have vanished. You guys will just have to write more SD3 fanfiction to try and fill the void (very very big void) she left! Thanks for the review.  
  
James the Phox: Yeah, like I said, not one of my better chapter titles. (I myself am suffering from Titlyoid). I guess it's refreshing to know that people still read them, though. Hmm, I thought I recognised you, but maybe your E-Mail just bears a startling resemblance to someone else's, now that I think about it. Ah well. Thanks very much for the review!  
  
TenshiNoAkuma: I have similar issues with novelisation of the games myself (hence the random disregard for storyline). The odd bit of familiarity is nice, but I at least try and keep things fresh. (Except the jokes. Those are way past stale by now.) LOL, thanks for the review!  
  
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: (Breathes a sigh of relief). Happy that Koren appearance met your inspection. I sincerely hope to survive another chapter of Koren before I get back into safer waters. Heh heh, thanks for the review.  
  
Truewind: I can't for the life of me remember what movie inspired the magical sphere thing for the Fairy either (I'm pretty sure it was a movie, or maybe a TV show...) but it was there in my head, and I'll be damned if I start ignoring the voices NOW. As usual, Truewind sees through all, and keeps me on my toes. Thanks as always for the review!  
  
^_^: Indeed. As much fun as it would have been to have Bigieu and Jagan stick around, two of the three main characters come from that storyline.  
  
Cookie Pixie: NO MORE ANIME?! NOOOO! Well, coincidentally, I didn't actually get the chance to watch any until now, but I'm planning an anime orgy tonight. Just me, some two-minute noodles, and a stack of DVDs. It was harder to do humour in that one, hopefully I'll get out of the humour rut soon. Well, thanks for the review, and hope you like this chapter.  
  
The One and Only T: One month later.... Angela must be the cleanest Delvar ever.  
  
Violettegal345: New reviewer! Hello! (Stares). The whole fic in one day? It doesn't make you weird.... Just very impressive (Mind boggled). That's some attention span, not to mention your pain tolerance must be through the roof.... Thanks for the review, hope you keep reading!  
  
Ack! Enough from me! You've waited more than enough for this chapter, I hope you like it. I'll try and pick up my act. Honestly. If I was lying, wouldn't it be more elaborate?  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 36 – What's the Going Exchange Rate for Mana Swords?  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
The next morning - though in all rights it was probably getting closer to afternoon - found the trio at last fed, bathed and rested. Well, the rested part in Duran's case was disputable; he had been so uptight that he had woken far before all of them, and had seemed to have spent most of the morning nervously shining the Mana Sword again and again. At this rate, he could blind his opponents with it before even having to take a swing. It was to be expected, she supposed, given that much like herself, Duran had been planning on confronting the Red Wizard for some time, and it was starting to look like today might be the day. Still, the proper rest, food and baths had done all of them some good - she hadn't even noticed how run- down Hawk had been until after he cleaned up. The tan had probably done some good to hiding the accumulated dirt. Duran, well, he always looked good, but he positively shone after a good scrub up. Quite literally. When DID he find the time to shine all of that armour?  
  
Enjoying the feel of newly cleaned dress, shoes, and hair, not to mention a full stomach, Angela stretched as she stood up from the table. It almost seemed a shame to ruin the temporary peaceful pall the extra sleep had settled over her by finding the annoying Fairy again. Being able to wake up without the annoying preachy voice yelling in her ear had been a rare treat. She allowed herself a wicked grin at that. She doubted that Koren would have been able to get any sleep with the Fairy in his presence. It might just be HIS turn to have rings under his eyes and bed hair.  
  
Fortunately this time the innkeeper hadn't recognised the bedraggled travellers that had stumbled in half-dead the night before, or was keeping quiet about it until he could go and modify his sign to say 'Princess Angela stayed here TWICE', so there didn't look to be anything much keeping them from heading to Altena right now. He'd even been so nice to let them have their usual last minute 'strategy council' in private. By that, it usually meant that Duran would state the obvious, the Fairy would give them a plan full of holes, Hawk would comment on Angela's waistline, and she'd throw spells at him until the innkeeper would throw them out, at which point they'd wind up doing whatever the thief suggested while the Fairy complained that HER plan was perfectly okay. Of course, without the Fairy here, this delicate balance had been terribly upset.  
  
"We should plan what we're going to do," Duran said, in an unusual instance of foresight, as opposed to the usual bust-in-now-think-what-to-do-later scenario the Knight seemed to favour. He really HAD been up most of the night thinking about it. "The Red Wizard will probably want to exchange the Fairy for the Sword, and will set up the meeting so that we HAVE to lose one or the other."  
  
"He could have at least offered to buy it," Hawk mumbled. "I'd bet the Mana Sword would go for a SONG on the Black Market."  
  
"Hawk!"  
  
"What?! Don't deny that you also think that the Fairy for the Sword is hardly a fair exchange!"  
  
Glancing at the thief, looking worried at even the suggestion, Duran continued regardless, "-But maybe if there was some sort of back way into the Palace, we could get Flammie to drop us there and we could snatch the Fairy back first?" He suggested hopefully.  
  
Clearing her throat, the Princess stepped up. She really hated having to ruin a plan that the Forcenan had clearly spent a great deal of time thinking up. She had long given up on judging her intended future boyfriend on the same scales of mental acuity as everyone else. "Altena has magical wards set up protecting it from aerial attack. And the only way onto the Palace Grounds by foot is through the entrance," she informed them, grateful that being Princess had at least made her privy to such information, even if she didn't bother to memorise ALL of it. At least if a battle with Koren was forthcoming, it was going to be on home turf. Koren's home turf, too, she admitted begrudgingly, but she liked to think that as Princess she knew the palace a little better than he did.  
  
"Oh," was all the disappointed Knight had to say. "So.... we have to go through the snow fields again?"  
  
"Flammie ought to be able to drop us off by the gates," she assured him, catching Hawk giving a happy sigh of relief out of the corner of her eye when it was realised that the long trek through the snow wouldn't be necessary. "But aside from that we'll have to take a normal route to the Palace."  
  
"Sounds simple enough," the Knight commented.  
  
"Don't forget that there's the army to contend with," she muttered. "Even if there a no-kill mandate at the moment, I'm sure Koren would prefer to use the army to capture us and just take the Sword without having to make any sort of deal." Unless he grew tired of the Fairy and just gave her back to them anyway. At which point he'd probably just kill all of them. As much faith she had developed in her magic, she didn't want to take on the entire Altenan army if she could help it.  
  
"So we need a way to get through Altena to the Palace without having to fight the entire army," Duran reasoned. Their task seemed to become more complicated by the second.  
  
"Ah, just leave that one to me," Hawk drawled from where he was draped over his seat, flashing them a quick smile.  
  
Raising an eyebrow, the Princess decided not to ask. It was generally a good idea not to question the thief's methods too deeply, and he hadn't messed up yet, so....  
  
Nodding, Duran said, "In that case, when we do get there, we can always try and fight Koren over it. I'm sure by now we could win."  
  
Angela was beginning to doubt that, even with all of the Elementals and the Goddess herself behind them. Koren was clearly getting a whole lot of power from SOMEWHERE, her guess being the Underworld, though how the wizard had achieved THAT was anyone's guess. Still, he was still human, right? With all three of them, they might stand a chance. "Besides," she added half-heartedly, "I doubt that Koren would just hand the Fairy back over anyway." After all, what were the chances of the Red Wizard playing fair now?  
  
Seemingly decided on this course of action, the Knight was nodding to himself. "There's no other way then. We bust in, fight Koren, grab the Fairy, and bust out!" Duran must have been a little worried himself, if he was using 'fight' instead of 'kill' when referring to Koren, but naturally refused to be cowed and was insistent as usual on stubbornly striding towards his own death. "We shouldn't waste anymore time! Let's go call Flamme."  
  
Nearly falling out of their seats in their effort to catch up with the Knight before he wound up storming Altena Palace all by himself, Angela pausing only to grab her crystal cane, the Delvar and Ranger hurried after him, Hawk belatedly realising he still had possession of the drum, and made to call Flammie.  
  
As the drum rang out, Angela grimaced. "You idiot! Don't call her here! There are people everywhere! You'll draw a crowd!"  
  
"So? I'm freezing! Besides, how could I pass up the chance to have this many people see me with such a beautiful woman? Oh, and the Mana Knight himself," Hawk added on as an afterthought. "It'll score me so much credibility!"  
  
Angela snorted as the white dragon swiftly dove from the sky - from the snow Flammie was shaking from her feathers, it seemed that she hadn't wandered far at all, taking the Knight's advice to heart, though how the young dragon seemed to understand them was anyone's guess. Seemed to understand them well enough to figure out being insulted when her gender was mistaken, and to further understand Hawk's affectations. It was probably another Mana thing.  
  
Hurriedly clambering on to her back and ignoring the surprised cries of the various townspeople, they urged Flammie to take to the sky. The poor populace of Snow City Elrand probably thought they were under attack. Though how anyone could be afraid of anything so cute was hard to comprehend. Either way, the white dragon was quick to take off again, skimming playfully over the snow-covered treetops.  
  
The Sub-Zero Snowfields were much prettier when you weren't actually walking through them, Angela noted absently. The trip was really too short to fully appreciate it, though. Flammie, as though sensing the magical defenses that started right at Altena's Gates and spanned a considerable distance, dropped them off outside the looming gates to Altena and left quickly.  
  
The Princess was confronted with mixed feelings, staring at those massive gates. Theoretically, she ought to like the sight of them - being future ruler of Altena and all - but over time she had been developing a profound dislike for the things. Probably started right about that time she wound up outside of them, fleeing for her life into the Snowfields with nothing more than the clothes on her back and her accessory cane. The things were just downright gaudy, too. Some ancient architect really had lousy taste - the Gates were ridiculously ornate, even for Altenan livery.  
  
"What the-? It's iced over!" Duran exclaimed, pushing on the gates in frustration, tiny crystals of snow and ice shaking off it as he pushed his weight against it.  
  
"Angie? What kind of mechanisms do these Gates use?" Hawk asked, not bothering to waste his energy trying to open them, and clearly unwilling to touch anything that was literally covered in ice.  
  
Frowning, she replied, "Locked by ice magic. I suppose that Koren must have planned on making us wait out here before he opened it. Maybe even planned an ambush."  
  
Duran cursed, rubbing his hands together to drive away the cold. Having expected quick passage into the magically warmed Altena, not even Hawk had gone to the trouble of being properly prepared for the weather. "We have to wait for him to open it?! He could leave us out here for hours!"  
  
Grinning, the Delvar pushed a stray strand of lavender hair from her face. "Ah, but Koren has clearly forgotten that I can do magic far beyond that of his regular army flunkies now!" Surely the Knight would praise her for THIS. "I'll just melt the barricade, and we can let ourselves in! A decent-sized fireball should do it!"  
  
"If only all girls I met were as resourceful as you, Angie," Hawk murmured, rubbing his arms to keep the feeling in them.  
  
The Princess briefly contemplated shoving some snow down his pants for no particular reason, and wondering if even that would be enough to shut the blasted thief up.  
  
"Please just do it, Princess, we can't stand out here all day!" Duran begged, hopping from foot to foot to keep warm.  
  
"Fine, fine!" Angela grumbled, prepping the fire spell to melt the icy barricade. After all the adventures they had been going through, and the Knight was still calling her 'Princess'? While he's at it, why not Your Highness? Granted, he probably felt obliged to refer to her in a more formal manner because he was just a knight, and well, let's be honest, she was divine royalty, but Hawk, HAWK of all people, a lowly thief for Goddess's sake, called her 'Angie'! If he could do it, why couldn't Duran? She wasn't going to get anywhere with him if he wasn't willing to call her by at least a nickname!  
  
The thief in question had moved a good distance away, for some reason. Looking at him in puzzlement, she realised why as Duran flapped his arms in a panic. "Princess, do you really need a fireball THAT big?"  
  
Ooops. In her irritation she'd lost track of the spell. Wow, Jose would be proud of this one.... but what was she going to do with it?  
  
Seconds later, nothing was remaining of the icy barricade. And not much of the gates, either.  
  
Coughing nonchalantly, the Princess strode through the charred and smoking remains of the Gates as though it had been her intention all along. It was amazing what a little sleep and food could do to one's magic. "Didn't like those Gates anyway."  
  
She then stopped, and blinked, when she realised that a good portion of the army was standing not too far beyond the Gates, and were now staring at her in something of a shocked surprise. Oh yeah.... she'd forgotten about that. "Hawk," she hissed, "Whatever your plan was, I'd put it into action NOW!"  
  
"Coming, coming. A little help from Jinn, Angie?" Hawk asked with a grin as the army stood there - apparently none of them had quite figured out what to do yet. Maybe in her prolonged absence, they had all forgotten how to recognise their Princess. Or more likely, all of Altena's sorceresses were staring at Duran's handsome visage, blinded by his good looks. Angela wondered briefly if the all-female Amazoness army of Rolante ever encountered this kind of problem. It was weakness that could eventually be exploited should their enemies discover it.  
  
Not bothering to ask why, Angela set about summoning a wind as Hawk laid a hand on the ground, and started murmuring under his breath as a warm glow spread out from beneath his fingertips. Slowly, breaking and uncurling from the ground at an impossibly fast rate, a bed of familiar flowers began to grow and blossom before their very eyes, throwing fine grains of pollen into the air. "Sleep Flower!" Hawk announced with a flourish. Eyes widening in realisation, Angela reinforced Jinn's breeze to spread the cloud of fragrant pollen throughout Altena. After a moment of surprised cries, and a few hasty counter-spells that were cast too late, the Altenan soldiers' eyes began to droop, and they quickly fell to the ground in unconsciousness; a peacefully sleeping horde.  
  
Silence fell as the pollen made its way through the city. It had worked just like it had at Rolante. Hawk seemed very pleased with himself. "Taken right out of Navarre's book."  
  
Angela tried to hide her annoyance at her companion's success. She kept forgetting that the Ranger had acquired both Luna's and Dryad's magic, and his little stunt had clearly upstaged her fireball! Duran was slapping him on the back and congratulating him on his brilliant strategy, which theoretically, she fumed, was Don Perigon's in the first place, and didn't she deserve the same praise for using Jinn to spread the pollen throughout the city?!  
  
Trying to distract herself from what she refused to admit was jealousy of the desert rat's natural skill for magic, she strode determinedly through the now-quiet streets of her once-home, occasionally nonchalantly stepping over the odd unconscious guard. Goddess, she'd missed Altena.... nearly everything was as she remembered it. That was a little disconcerting, she liked to think that Altena would be a little more affected by the disappearance of their Princess..... even if that Princess couldn't use magic.... and the Queen didn't seem to be set to die anytime soon..... Unless Koren killed her first. Surely it was worth at least one riot, though!  
  
"Do you think they're all asleep?" Duran asked, stopping to nudge a sleeping witch with his toe. She didn't respond.  
  
Hawk shrugged. "Most of the regular army should be. If the Dark Knight is working with Koren, though, we should be careful - he was at Rolante, and he might have developed a resistance to the flower like we did. And I don't know how well it would work against someone like Koren, either."  
  
"Neat."  
  
"So, this is Altena, huh?" the Navarrian commented with a low whistle, hands behind his head and he strode leisurely alongside the Princess. "Nice. Looks rich."  
  
She glared at the thief from the corner of her eye. "No stealing here, or I'll have you put to death faster than a rabite in a field of Beastmen."  
  
"Oh, so it's okay to steal from other Kingdoms then?"  
  
"I have to insist you refrain from it in Forcena too," Duran injected hastily, before adding, "Not that I really think you should steal at all."  
  
At least the Fairy wasn't here. This discussion would probably be prolonged painfully if she was. Did they REALLY want to rescue her? "As far as I see it, Rolante and Wendel are fair game!"  
  
"Ah yes, I'm going to steal from poor village people and a fortress on the world's tallest mountain," he retorted dryly.  
  
"Since when did you develop honour?"  
  
"It's not honour! Poor village people have nothing to steal!"  
  
"Princess, is this the Palace?" Duran asked. Angela raised an eyebrow, trying to restrain the urge to reply 'Duh'. If the majestic building that was probably the same size as the town itself wasn't the Palace, what did the Knight think it was? The shopping district?  
  
"Sure is," she answered instead, striding confidently up past numerous sleeping sentries. Hopefully Dryad's magic would last as long as their business took, otherwise getting out might be a problem. They hadn't really thought too deeply about that part. It was nice to think that they might have one-up on Koren in terms of strategy, though, even with the slight, erm, handicap on their team. If the Wizard was going to fight dirty, they would too!  
  
Fortunately, the interior of the palace was also inhabited only by sleeping guards. Striding confidently through the hallways, the Princess led her comrades through her home towards the throne room, where Koren was inevitably standing next to her mother. Dear Goddess, she'd missed this place. It was so odd to feel such danger in such familiar surroundings. Koren would suffer for doing this to her childhood home!  
  
Well, it was Koren's childhood home, too, for the most part. But then, HE wasn't the one who'd been illegitimately thrown into exile by his own mother, either!  
  
So caught up in her internal ranting, she almost didn't realise they'd reached the throne room until she found her feet stopping of their own accord, apparently having at some point gone into automatic and hoping that the Knight and Ranger didn't fall behind. "This is it," she announced needlessly.  
  
"Let's not be rude by keeping them waiting," Hawk said with a grin, gesturing. "I think the Mana Knight should go first, don't you?"  
  
Flashing something of a grin himself, Duran kicked open the doors with his usual flair, Angela wincing slightly at the bang. This WAS her home, didn't Duran at least consider he was damaging furniture when he went for such Dramatic Entries?  
  
Koren coolly turned and regarded them - he was standing there in front of the throne as expected, and didn't seem the slightest bit surprised to see them. Ah, damn it. It probably was a bit much to hope that Hawk's spell had put him under too. Given their recent track record, that simply would have been too easy. It looked like this had the potential to escalate into battle after all.  
  
Stepping up quietly beside the infamous Red Wizard was the Darkshine Knight, as well, Angela gauged, trying as quickly as possible to take in everything in the room. If there was going to be a battle, she didn't want any surprises. She felt her eyes narrow of their own accord when she spotted her mother, apparently either sleeping or unconscious on the throne. Lazy woman! Her own General was taking their nation over right under her nose, and she couldn't even do anything about it!  
  
"So, you've arrived at last," Koren commented smoothly; though the 'at last' seemed a little more stressed than Angela had expected. She had to suppress the urge to snigger. Koren did look a little more tired than usual. Figures the Fairy kept him up with her babbling all night.  
  
"Hand over the Fairy! Where is she?!" Duran demanded.  
  
The Wizard of the Red Lotus raised a delicate eyebrow at that. "Show me the Sword first."  
  
Reluctantly, the Forcenan held up the Mana Sword to be seen. They really didn't want to have to do a swap if they could help it, but until the Fairy was safe, with the Darkshine Knight there they couldn't really risk an ambush. The Sword at least could be retrieved in battle. The Fairy couldn't. And Koren was probably LOOKING for an excuse to end the miserable insect's existence, too.  
  
"Here it is. Now you release the Fairy!"  
  
Slowly, surely just for the sake of antagonizing them, the blonde removed the small crystal sphere from his scarlet cloak and held it in his fingertips. It looked somewhat as though the Fairy was yabbering on and she promptly started banging on the side of the globe as she saw them. They couldn't hear anything, though. Koren must have finally grown tired of the racket and simply cast a small silencing spell on the orb, Angela realised. Silence magic was something she was definitely going to have to try and learn.  
  
"Put the Sword on the ground and back away ten paces from it," he ordered.  
  
Duran's mask of indignation was a little too obvious. After all, it was hard to believe under such an exchange that the Red Wizard would keep his word. "No! Put down the Fairy first!"  
  
Koren's expression flickered to boredom. "Put down the Sword and back away, or your precious Fairy dies." Magic sparked around his fist threateningly.  
  
Gritting his teeth, Duran stepped forward and placed the Mana Sword carefully on the ground. Looking as though his heart was breaking as he left it - the man was far too attached to the Sword for his own good, though who could really blame him after all the trouble they'd gone through to get the damn thing - he carefully backed ten paces away, until he was standing alongside the Delvar and Ranger.  
  
With the Darkshine Knight watching them carefully, Koren swiftly approached the Mana Sword laying on the ground. Seeing the Forcenan tense up, he warned, "Move an inch, and I crush the orb." Not that at this distance they'd really have time to ambush him successfully , anyway. Though Angela was finding a hard time controlling herself from lashing out at the man she'd wanted to kill for a very long time when he was standing there in plain view, within easy reach of a Dark Force spell.  
  
Grinning triumphantly, the Wizard grasped the hilt, though his expression changed to one of surprise when he found he could barely lift it. He let out a hiss through his teeth another moment later when it appeared - the Delvar could scarce believe her eyes - as though the hilt itself was burning him! The Darkshine Knight took a step forward, reminding them not to take advantage Koren's vulnerable state.  
  
As the dawning realisation set in, Angela couldn't help but comment smugly, "Doesn't belong to you, does it?"  
  
Glaring daggers at her, he murmured a spell under his breath. Suddenly, the Sword seemed to dull, then readjust its glow to something.... different, something far more sinister than the shine it had acquired when Duran had grasped its hilt. "Dispelled it," she cursed under her breath. It seemed that the Wizard was capable of even more dark magics than she had originally expected.  
  
Triumphant smirk settling in place once again, the Wizard held the Sword high, admiring it. "Amazing. The Emperor will be pleased indeed. This is truly the Mana Sword! It's power! With it, he is capable of anything!"  
  
Duran seemed about ready to explode, seeing the coveted Mana Sword sitting in his worst enemy's hands, own hand poised on the hilt of his regular broadsword. "We held up our end of the bargain! Now let the Fairy go. Safely," he ordered.  
  
The Red Wizard seemed amused. "You are far too naive, boy. Did you honestly believe that I would willingly let the Goddess's little puppet go free after I acquired the Mana Sword? I think that now is the time where...." he trailed off, lifting his left hand, and seeming most puzzled to discover it was empty.  
  
"Looking for this?" Hawk commented, suddenly appearing in the corner of the Delvar's sight, holding a small crystal globe. Angela blinked. When had he MOVED?  
  
"What?! How-?!" It was a rare thing to see the normally collected Wizard at such at loss. Angela was enjoying it immensely. By the grin on Hawk's face, he was enjoying it too.  
  
"Surprise!"  
  
Koren was not similarly impressed by this turn of events. "This was not part of the plan," he hissed.  
  
"Well, it wouldn't have been much of a surprise if it was." Hawk expertly cracked open the small orb encasing the Fairy, who wasted not a second in rushing to the shoulder of her beloved Mana Knight.  
  
"Arrogant fool!" he muttered, expression neutral even as his eyes were lighting with sparks of anger. He formed and threw a powerful fireball directly at the Navarrian in one swift move.  
  
Angela let out a strangled cry at the fierce display of offensive magic. "Hawk!"  
  
Koren blinked. Hawk was standing several metres away, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, still looking slightly amazed at being alive. The ground was molten where the thief had been standing previously, testament to the power and accuracy of the spell. Koren looked mildly shocked. "I..... missed?"  
  
"Must be all the practice from dodging Angela's spells all the time," the Fairy sniggered from her vantage point. When the Red Wizard sent a cold glare in her direction, she let out a tiny 'eep!' and disappeared hurriedly into the Knight's head like the coward she was.  
  
"Rotten cheating thief!" he spat.  
  
Hawk rolled his eyes. "Look who's talking."  
  
Re-composing himself, the General of the Altenan army drew his cloak around himself more tightly, firmly settling the Mana Sword onto his belt at his side. Gesturing briefly to the Darkshine Knight, he addressed them one last time. "It is no matter. I have what we came here for. I have no more time for the likes of you." With that, he strolled into the shadows, vanishing from sight as he did so. After a lingering glance at the Mana Knight, the Darkshine Knight followed, leaving the three heroes and their recovered Fairy alone in a suddenly oppressively large throne room.  
  
The instant they were gone, the Delvar and Knight wheeled on the thief.  
  
"Good work, Hawk," Duran commented, though he seemed distracted. "I thought we were going to lose the Fairy too for a second there."  
  
Hawk just shrugged it off nonchalantly. "All in a day's work."  
  
"Why didn't you steal the Mana Sword back while you were at it?!" Angela demanded.  
  
"Give me a break, Angie! That thing's heavy! You saw how Koren couldn't even lift it until he'd dispelled Duran's bond with it."  
  
"Well, maybe," she conceded begrudgingly. That was TWICE in one day the thief had upstaged her! And she didn't even get to take her potshot at the Red Wizard either! It had been quite some time since she'd been able to reflect on a day and actually say it had been a good one.  
  
"Angela?" A voice asked in bewilderment from behind them. Whirling in surprise, the trio spotted the Queen of Reason, standing up from her throne, looking very confused at the two strangers situated with her daughter in the middle of the empty throne room.  
  
In all of the commotion, they'd almost forgotten that Queen Valda of Altena was even there.  
  
"Mother....," Angela began, trailing off. Again, she found herself confronted with a situation she'd been playing out in her head for weeks - or was it months? - and suddenly having no clue how she was supposed to react.  
  
Meanwhile, the esteemed Queen of Reason seemed to be regarding her throne room in something of a daze, eyes drifting from a the molten patch of floor, to a Forcenan Knight, to a now clearly battle-hardened daughter and.... to a ragamuffin from Navarre? Not to mention, the throne room was rarely empty of both her General and advisors. Usually there was at least a servant nearby!  
  
"I feel as though I've been missing a great deal. If you would care to inform me of what exactly is going on.....," she suggested, though there was no doubt in the minds of those present that it was an order. Duran had already instinctively gone into 'dealing with royalty' mode, having dropped respectfully to one knee. Hawk, as usual, didn't seem too bothered with formalities, as the Delvar caught him eying off some of the smaller decorations in the throne room, only settling his eyes forward with a pronounced cough and threatening glare from the resident Princess. And even then, she was pretty sure he was trying to evaluate the street value of her mother's crown.  
  
Well, now was the difficult means of summarizing what was happening. What could one say to quite possibly one of the most powerful magicians in the world without setting them off? 'Oh yes, let's see, don't you remember? You and Koren were planning to sacrifice your magic-less daughter who ran off into exile, wound up on some crazy quest just so she could get some magic, on which she met up with the Mana Knight and an exiled thief from Navarre, with whom she stopped your Kingdom's invasion of Forcena, liberated Rolante from Navarre and there was the issue of all those Mana Stones to protect too, all the while being dogged by a slightly deranged High Priest's granddaughter. And did she forget to mention that they just came back from the Mana Holyland? Oh, and who could forget that your magic- less daughter swore revenge on your beloved General and now has enough magic to blow half the army out of the water? Or the fact that this beloved General was in fact just using Altena's resources to serve some Underworld Power and had stolen the mother of all magical artifacts, the Mana Sword itself, for undoubtedly nefarious purposes?'  
  
She didn't think she'd take it too well. Regardless, she relayed the basic facts of the story, though made a point of cutting out some of the editorials.  
  
When the abbreviated tale was finished, a dangerously neutral expression seemed to remain on her mother's face. "I see," Queen Valda said with narrowed eyes. Angela had to restrain herself from shifting under the scrutinizing gaze. Well, she had never really expected her mother to welcome her back with a big hug and warm words, even if she did have magic now. And it certainly didn't put one in a good mood to hear that their cherished General was in fact, a traitor of sorts. "If all of this is indeed true, then I suppose an apology is in order. It appears you've journeyed far as well, Sir Mana Knight and....," she seemed uncertain how exactly to address Hawk, but eventually settled for a slightly derisive, "....Navarrian Ambassador." The sarcasm was clearly not wasted on Hawk, who executed a mocking bow. "I shall issue orders immediately to lift the death warrant on your head, my daughter," she said, voice and eyes softening slightly as she once again regarded her exiled offspring. Was that pride there? No, the Princess had to be imagining things. Still, was it all really possible that all of that... had just been some sort of spell of Koren's, like what had been used on the Navarrian Thieves' entire Guild? It certainly SEEMED like her mother had absolutely no recollection, or at least very little, of what had been going on in the past few months. How long ago had it been that her mother had really been her mother then? And was she going to be willing to forgive her, even if she was under a spell?! This was too confusing!  
  
"Oh, and you might want to have someone fix the Gates. I.... that is, we.... kind of damaged them a little on the way in. And most of Altena outside of the Palace should probably be woken up some time," Angela added hastily.  
  
"Oh, the Gates hardly matter. Ugly things, really. I've been wanting to tear them down for years. This will give me an excuse," Queen Valda commented absently. Duran coughed from where he was kneeling, none too keen on informing her that Angela had already taken quite a bit more liberty than she'd divulged on that issue.  
  
Well, it went better than expected, anyhow. No doubt they'd have to have a lengthier discussion later, but all in all the Queen seemed to be disturbingly accepting of the fact that it appeared to all present that she'd been under some sort of spell for quite some time. Fortunately, this was where Hawk was good at breaking eerily calm waters.  
  
"All that being said, Your Highness, I don't suppose that such a fine woman yourself would be free to discuss.... international relations over drinks this evening?" Hawk said charmingly, throwing in a wink for good measure.  
  
Queen Valda reacted before Angela even had the chance. "Ice Smash!"  
  
Long used to dodging this spell from his companion, Hawk shivered none-the- less at the frosty reply. "Jeez, Angie, your mother is scarier than you."  
  
"Shut up, you worthless street trash! That's no way to regard royalty!" Angela announced, swinging her own cane towards the Navarrian's head, who sidestepped again neatly.  
  
Waving a hand dismissively, the Queen suddenly looked very tired, though not tired enough to glare at the 'Navarrian Ambassador'. "I have heard enough for now. I will speak with you again later. I imagine you must be tired, also, so I shall arrange rooms for you to stay the night. SEPERATE rooms," she said with a slight inclination of the head, fixing her gaze on Hawk, then on her daughter's apparently starry-eyed gaze on the still- kneeling Knight. "I'll need to confirm this with all of my advisors, of course, so I recommend you don't think about leaving prematurely."  
  
That was a little more like the cold-hearted mother she remembered. Angela sometimes wondered if the Queen kept Altena warm by draining all personal forms of warmth from her personality. With nothing more to say, Valda swept from the room off into a side corridor. A moment later, some fierce yelling echoed back to them. "GET UP OFF THE FLOOR, YOU INDOLENT ARISTOCRAT!" Hawk and Duran looked curiously at Angela.  
  
She shrugged. "That's probably her latest consort. He generally gets the blame when she messes up."  
  
The Knight and Ranger looked mildly disturbed. "It disturbs me that you label a 'mess-up' as something that results in the death of thousands," Hawk murmured.  
  
"It disturbs ME how much the daughter takes after the mother," the Fairy muttered, finally fluttering from the safe confines of the Knight's head.  
  
"So, what do we do now? I mean, we're stuck here for the time being, according to Her Highness Queen Valda's wishes, but once that's taken care of, what next?" Duran asked the Fairy, who was looking none the worse for wear despite her ordeal and, oh yes, LOSING THE MANA SWORD. So much for their plan.  
  
As usual reading her thoughts, the Fairy replied, "Losing the Mana Sword to Koren is a terrible blow, but I'm afraid that this is no longer our largest problem."  
  
This day just kept getting better and better. "Ungrateful gnat! You're not even going to thank us for saving your worthless hide before you bring MORE bad news?!"  
  
"This is really serious, Angela!"  
  
"What is it that could possibly be more serious than losing the Mana Sword?" Duran wondered.  
  
"How could you have forgotten?! The seals on all of the Mana Stones have been broken! The God-Beasts are now loose, and will soon combine into one creature that will destroy the world!"  
  
Oh, that.  
  
_____________________  
  
A little shorter (not to mention later) than usual, I'll endeavour to make it up! Really! Please review, and maybe I'll try and think up some new jokes in response. (Maybe.) Thanks for your patience. 


	37. Conversations in a Princess's Bedroom

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Nothing special for this chapter, just the usual innuendo.  
  
Author's note: You see, this is where I really like the Author's note: I get to stand up for myself! Foolish professional authors never get this opportunity. I received a number of complaints after the last chapter over the word 'indolent'. Whilst I agree that 'insolent' also works well, 'indolent' is, in fact, a real word, and not a typo (for once, whee!). It's synonymous with 'lazy', in short. After all, Queen Valda's consort would have been sleeping on the ground, courtesy of Hawk's sleep flower. Just glad we cleared that one up. On to this chapter. Hmm, this chapter is a less eventful, shorter, and nowhere near as action-packed as I'm sure you guys want, but it's an important one (So I felt, anyway) so I had to throw this in here before we got on to the God-Beasts. I know, I know! I drag things out. Blame it on a personality disorder and we can all get along better for it.  
  
Response to the Reviewers!:  
  
Just Call Me Angels: Well, seeing as I never insult any of my reviewers on purpose, take it as a compliment ^_^. I mostly find it funny. I hope I've delivered on the flirting... sort of, anyway. Thanks for the review!  
  
Wingnut: This is a good thing I suppose, seeing as I do have a tendency to find myself falling into turnip barrels often. Thanks very much! Try not to get too lonely while you're pretending you're sane.  
  
Lone Ronin: It HAS been a while since Carlie's appeared, hasn't it? I'm sure we'll see her at least twice more before the end of the fic (whenever that will be.) I've never really watched Gundam, so no, I haven't read your Gundam stuff (and I find the sheer size of the fandom quite daunting as well), but if it means a lot to you I'll give it a shot. Yes! Write an SD3 fic! I myself haven't decided about the Black Rabite, this story is meant to focus more on the character relationships than the actual monsters, but it might be fun. Thanks for the review!  
  
Slash, the Ironman: Yeah, sorry about the wait. I think I've developed too many hobbies and commitments since beginning this fic ^_^;;. Thanks as always for the review! (And keep those dark hordes away! Time used getting rid of them is time that could be spent writing!)  
  
Freeloader1: I'm afraid I've already tried the 26 episodes series in one day thing... I think it was Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, then it was Fruits Basket, then it was X.... Not healthy, I agree, turns the brain to mush. Your presence was missed, but thanks for reviewing this chapter!  
  
Staci/Nadia: Welcome back! Well, you should appreciate Dryad in this chapter, hopefully. That was quite a review, and unfortunately I can't really reply to all of it in here, but one point I'm glad you picked up on is Queen Valda and the absence of the Death Spell. That did strike me as odd in the game, so I changed it here, though I'm sure Squaresoft had a good reason for it. Hope you like this chapter, and thanks for the cat food – er, review!  
  
FrickinEvilPoptart: (blinks) Well, I suppose yours was among them, but it worked nicely, didn't it? I agree, MEH! It was tempting to 'off' Queen Valda (though she didn't exactly die in the game if you've ever played Angela's scenario, which was confusing after the death spell), but then, how could Angela just leave her Kingdom without a ruler? Okay, so Riesz did it. Ack, this discussion could go forever! Thanks for the review!  
  
Cookie Pixie: You'd probably be better suited to writing an 8-Bit Theatre cross-over than I would, let me know if or when you do, okay? Glad you liked Queen Valda's characterization. Always happy to hear from you.  
  
^_^: YAR! You're early. (STILL. I know. *small voice* Please don't kill me.)  
  
Ignorantly Grinning: Hello! Like I said, 'insolent' would probably work, but I used 'indolent' on purpose. I figured Queen Valda was the type to have an expansive vocabulary; she's the 'Queen of Reason' after all.  
  
Lady Storm: (holds up sign that says, 'Will write for food')  
  
Feyenal Dragon: H/A moment! A big one! Lots more coming too! Thanks for the review!  
  
TheOneandOnlyT: Sorry for the typo then :P! I've been trying to speed up the updates, this one was only a slight improvement, even if the chapter is shorter. Thanks to everyone for their patience.  
  
ThunDaGa: I know I've been slack, I grovel and apologise from the bottom of my heart. I could be quicker, but the chapter would both be shorter and probably even MORE filled with typos and mistakes and then I'd need TWO author's notes. Thanks for still reading and reviewing, though! (tries to have fun as suggested, has forgotton how.)  
  
Ack, enough from me already! Like I said, sorry for the wait, shorter chapter than usual, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!  
  
_______________  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 37 – Conversations in a Princess's Bedroom  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
************  
  
"And so now, it's up to you to go and kill each of these God-Beasts as soon as possible, before they can grow any stronger, or even worse, combine!" The Fairy concluded with a flourish.  
  
That had been four hours ago. And Angela was STILL annoyed. Thus Hawk and Duran had been giving her as wide a berth as possible, knowing the inherent dangers of just being NEAR a pissed off Delvar. Some of the Palace's servants hadn't been quite so lucky.  
  
She paced in the confines of her familiar, yet somehow now alien room. Fighting God-Beasts now?! She had agreed to nothing about going on this quest for anything beyond this! Come to think of it, she hadn't agreed to any of this at all. She was starting to believe this was all some insane wild rabite chase the High Priest of Wendel had sent them on, just so that they'd help save Mana for free. Well, okay, she did get magic out of it, and it did give her a convenient excuse to follow Duran and try to flirt with him, but this was starting to get ridiculous! Hadn't the Mana Goddess herself felt threatened by the God-Beasts at one stage?!  
  
Her mood had not been helped by her private discussion with her mother, either, during which she'd held a much lengthier discussion over recent events. Especially with how awkward it had been when the Queen hadn't seemed too pleased with the idea of her daughter travelling alone with two men - and it certainly didn't help when one of them was a lower-class ladies-man wanna-be. THAT had been a most embarrassing discussion. More to the point that Angela wasn't willing to admit even to herself that she'd been having less luck in this situation than she had on a normal night at the local inn.  
  
Fortunately, after several well-placed questions about just HOW her mother had come to be on first-name basis with King Richard, the topic had been dropped, and she'd simply been given the Queen's blessing and sent off to bed. Angela still felt a little nervous about the reasoning behind the odd blush that had sprung up on her mother's face at the news. Queen Valda simply did not blush.  
  
Still, she thought happily, at least she'd received a new cane out of the deal. Having heard the tales of her new skills with her daughter's choice of weapon, not to mention this whole thing with the God-Beasts, the Queen had bestowed some rather impressive weapons upgrades on all of them as a token of thanks for their intervention. She wasn't sure what Hawk and Duran might have received from the deal, but she knew, as she eyed her staff critically, that she'd been given something of a very old royal treasure. The Ancient Staff, she was told by Jose, who'd been so kind as to present her the gift with his usual lecture, was not quite as heavy hitting as her crystal rod, but was charmed to hold up against even the heaviest blows from the sharpest objects, and was lighter to allow faster movement. It would also be able to deliver more of her magical energy if she ever used something like her 'Star Attack' - she cringed even now at Duran's simplistic name. Still, it had been nice to demonstrate some of her magic for her flabbergasted old teacher. That'd teach him to doubt HER ever again. Some of the charmed accessories that the higher levels of the army used were also given to her, most only useful in reducing some of the damage inflicted by magic, but if the tales she'd heard of God-Beasts were true, anything that took the bite out of a spell was welcome. They'd been fortunate in most of their battles thus far, minus a few surprise skirmishes, to have managed to dodge most of the spells thrown at them, rather than taking the full brunt of it, but in the few cases one of them, usually Duran, hadn't been quite fast enough, it left them scrambling for Wisp. She herself had a certain amount of magical damage already, but she still ought to see if some of Altena's armour-makers could weave some sort of defensive spells into her own dress, now that she thought about it. She hadn't even bothered with such things until now because it hadn't seemed necessary, but if they were going to go fight the God-Beasts.....  
  
"My my, is that fetching piece of wood going to be the next thing I have to dodge?"  
  
Angela growled low in her throat at the interruption. "I was just thinking it would look quite good smashed into your head."  
  
Grinning, the thief skipped from the shadows into the room - he appeared to have entered through one of the open windows. "It's a wonder I've managed to stay alive so long around you."  
  
"I dare wager it's thanks to your unnaturally thick skull," she retorted.  
  
"Ah, as usual your sweet words warm my cold heart," he collapsed melodramatically into one of the sitting chairs by the window, sprawling across it leisurely.  
  
"Come to pilfer things from my own rooms now, have you?" she asked, only half sarcastically.  
  
"Of course not! I just wanted to see what kind of room my companion lived in! I'd show you MY room!"  
  
"You don't have one!"  
  
"That's not MY fault."  
  
"You just want to get into my pants!" Angela accused.  
  
"And what lovely pants they are!" Hawk exclaimed.  
  
Rolling her eyes, the Princess turned to continue inspecting the various ribbons and amulets the Queen had gifted her with. "Give it up, what's the REAL reason you're here? I hardly need mother bouncing in here to find you lounging on the furniture after her explicit warnings." Even his superb dodging skills hadn't saved Hawk entirely from the Queen's spells upon his SECOND attempt to get a dinner date. In a way, he was lucky that the monarch's magic was mostly spent warming and protecting Altena, leaving little behind for such frivolous usage in reminding 'Navarrian Ambassadors' of their place.  
  
"I can hardly picture your mother bouncing anywhere. I just came to ask you what you were going to do! Is that a crime? Duran was too scared, and I thought I'd spare you the Fairy's company."  
  
The Princess, in a moment of unguarded self-pity, muttered to herself, "Don't try and fool me. He's busy shining his new sword and armour, and you wanted to escape the Fairy's bored yakking." She paused after a moment. "Wait, what do you mean 'ask me what I'm going to do'?"  
  
"What you're going to do now," Hawk repeated patiently, fixing her with that amber gaze of his.  
  
"I don't understand," she replied, confused.  
  
"You were just coming on this quest of sorts to get magic, weren't you?" he asked, twiddling a knife he acquired from somewhere, she really didn't want to know where, in his fingers lazily.  
  
"Well, yes," Angela answered hesitantly, unsure of where this was heading.  
  
"And you have magic now, right? So what's REALLY keeping you from going after Koren right now? Duran's mission has obviously changed greatly from defeating the Wizard of the Red Lotus to his mission as the Mana Knight. I'm not even sure if he cared that deeply about defeating Koren so much as being too weak anyway. But you don't need to come fight the God-Beasts. In fact, weren't you only going to kill Koren so that your mother would accept you back?"  
  
"That was the general plan," she admitted through gritted teeth, wondering if the Ranger had a point, and having the feeling that if he did, she wasn't going to like it.  
  
"Well, she's done it, hasn't she? She was just under a spell - there was no real need to kill anyone. You're welcome back in Altena, the death warrant is lifted from your head, and there's no longer the pressing need to defeat the Red Wizard, is there? So why then, don't you stay? Why keep travelling with us?"  
  
Angela took an involuntary step backward. Why WOULD she still be travelling with the pair? (and the tiny glittering tag-along too, she supposed.) She'd just assumed that she would be, really - she'd been travelling with them so long now that it seemed natural to assume that she'd continue to do so. But everything she really wanted -except for Duran, and to be honest with herself, that was quickly becoming a hope long ago dashed - was right here in Altena. Granted, the desire to take her revenge on Koren for what he had done, and probably what he was going to do, was still pretty strong, but even so, that was a task largely unrelated to risking her life fighting the God-Beasts. That task fell to the chosen Mana Knight, and the Fairy had made it clear plenty of times before that she and Hawk were pretty much just backups. And though she didn't like the idea of leaving her handsome Knight to defeat the God Beasts all by himself - in all truth, without them, she admitted glumly, he'd probably be killed in five minutes, especially given his significant lack of magic and, well, quick-thinking - but while she was being so honest with herself, was going on a potentially suicidal journey worth the slim chance of the Forcenan's affection? Though the Knight was handsome beyond most mortals' comprehension, there were certainly plenty of other attractive Knights running around that were likely less oblivious and carried less chance of deadly encounters with the keeping their company.  
  
Suddenly determined to break the prolonged silence, the Delvar snapped, "And just why do YOU keep going on this crazy suicidal quest then? After all, Bigieu's gone now, isn't she? No revenge to be had, no Navarre Thieves Guild left to be liberated. And you can't spin me a line about wanting to save Mana either."  
  
The Ranger's fiddling stilled abruptly - he clearly hadn't been expecting the question to be thrown back in his face. She realised belatedly that perhaps it wasn't the most sensitive thing she'd ever done, but then, such displays were after all, common occurrences. Finally, Hawk replied, "You are aware that the situations are hardly similar, don't you? After all, your death warrant has been lifted, but mine won't be anytime soon, even if there was enough of a Thieves' Guild to go back to. You have the option to stay."  
  
"Almost sounds like you don't want me to tag along anymore, desert tramp," she retorted angrily. How DARE he question the intentions of royalty anyway? No matter how well he could fight, he was still just a lowly street thief! No, he was WORSE than a lowly street thief! He was a street thief outlawed by his own kind!  
  
"And lose the company of such an attractive and intelligent female? I would have to be a fool!" he declared, twirling the blade once more before sliding it deftly from sight once again.  
  
"Then what DO you want?!" she demanded, then immediately cringed, regretting her choice of words, just waiting for the thief's usual torrent of lewd comments. At least it would be a good chance to test out her nice new ancient cane.  
  
To her surprise, though, Hawk merely replied, "To know what you're going to do come tomorrow morning. That's when Duran's leaving."  
  
The silence stretched on for a long time, interrupted only by the quiet tapping of the Hawk's fingers on the windowsill. What to do.... After coming so far, it was still somewhat difficult to imagine returning to life as normal at Altena palace. Now that she had magic, she'd probably move onto something REALLY tiresome, like etiquette lessons. And she didn't like the idea of leaving things to fate, either. Then again, none of this was really HER problem, even though the fact that Koren HAD used Altena to do it kind of made her slightly responsible, being Princess and all. She tried to squash what looked like a noble thought before it could grow big enough for the Fairy to detect. Either way, she admitted to herself reluctantly, whether it came to wooing Duran, or fighting God-Beasts, she hated leaving any job unfinished. Finally, she replied, "I don't particularly want to go back to Jose's boring lectures. I'll come along.... for a while, anyway." She glared at him, "Just to keep you honest. I hardly trust you in Duran's company with just the two of you - you'd probably rob him blind and leave him to die!"  
  
"Nonsense! I'd leave him the Fairy!"  
  
"See, a complete lack of mercy!"  
  
Flashing her a quick grin, he stood, making his way back towards the window. "Still, you're coming! Looks like I win!"  
  
Angela renewed her grip on her cane. "Win what?!"  
  
He blinked at her. "Why, the bet of course! Duran and the Fairy both agreed that there was no way you'd leave a Palace this nice to traipse through the wilderness looking for God-Beasts."  
  
The Princess just waved him away, rubbing her head tiredly. Was she so pitiful that the only person who actually had any sort of faith in her was Hawk - of all people?! "I'm sure the God-Beasts will be quite easy to spot."  
  
She didn't get the chance to say anything else, though, before the Ranger disappeared; gone as quickly as he'd come.  
  
It was only then, that she realised neither of them had really answered the most important questions.  
  
Well, at least the verbal sparring match had put her in something of a better mood. She paused at that. Hawk hadn't actually been TRYING to cheer her up at the risk of his own life, had he? Of course not. He probably just wanted to improve her mood to.... well, to save his own life later, when she couldn't be avoided. Even Duran had picked up the Delvar's tendency to use Evil Gate over Holy Ball in her worse moods. And he probably preferred to confront her in the safe confines of the Palace that she'd prefer not to demolish rather than in the middle of a battle when the target of the spells could stray.  
  
Thus, the next morning found the trio gathered outside of Altena Palace. They had each spent a little time in the city preparing for the journey ahead. Duran had gathered some provisions, and Angela had finally discarded her old boots for a better pair with an actual grip on the sole and both fire and water resistant fabric, among other things. She eyed Hawk warily. He didn't look any different, though it was always possible he'd just done as she had and had defensive spells woven into the fabric of his clothes. Chances were he'd wasted the entire morning robbing Altena blind. At least they'd have money for their journey. She may as well let is slide and consider it taxes just this once.  
  
As she arrived, the Fairy shimmered into existence, with a damnable smirk on her face. "Angela! So, saving Mana is still stupid is it?"  
  
"Who said anything about saving Mana, gnat? I just came because you'd get Duran killed if I left you to it!" she spat, then cringed as she realised once again, she'd made an open statement about her feelings for the Knight - not that her earlier attempts at flirting hadn't been incredibly open anyway. Come to think of it, hadn't she decided on a change of strategy a while back? Damn Fairy probably distracted her! When she'd agreed to come along on the next installment of this crazy death-seeking adventure, she'd momentarily forgotten that it meant putting up with the Fairy for longer. She might have turned around at that point, if it wasn't for the thought of her mother's stern face. The Queen, to her surprise, had thought that sending her only daughter off to kill the God-Beasts with two strange men was a glorious idea - quite the turn-around from the night before. After discussing it that morning over breakfast, Valda had in fact made it quite clear that if she didn't go of her own volition, she'd insist on making it an order. And one does not ever get away with disobeying the Queen of Reason's orders, ESPECIALLY not her own daughter. Angela still wasn't entirely sure whether her mother trying to kill her was Koren's influence or not.  
  
"So," Hawk asked, yawning and stretching. "Which newly born God-Beast shall die first?"  
  
"I was trying to think about that," Duran replied, pulling out and setting down a map that he must have bought in town. "It would make sense to go to the closest Mana Stone first. That would be.... the Mana Stone of Ice?"  
  
"Wait!" The Fairy ordered. "I think the Elementals should be here to talk about this. All of them would know their Stones and the respective God- Beasts best. We shouldn't do anything without consulting them first. Hey guys, come on out!"  
  
To anyone watching, the scene would have been a strange one indeed - even for a Magical Kingdom like Altena. In fact, they were lucky that the Palace Courtyard was so empty as the eight Elementals all appeared and conglomerated in a rough circle. Dryad, Angela noticed with a raised eyebrow, was clinging like a scared child on to Hawk's arm, whilst Gnome and Jinn were bouncing around enthusiastically. Luna, Shade, Wisp and Undine were the only ones to hold themselves with any dignity. Salamando wasn't doing much of anything either, but somehow one couldn't help but feel as though some sort of explosion was imminent.  
  
"Don't even think of going to stop the God-Beast of Ice! It's much more important that you go defeat MY God-Beast first!" Salamando declared, fiery body crackling as though to accentuate his point.  
  
"I really think that you're not approaching the problem systematically, Salamando," Undine said coolly. Even Angela winced at the tone of voice. Maybe THAT was were her mother learnt it from, hadn't the Queen received the icy Elemental's blessing at some point as well? "As usual, you're letting your emotions get the better of you, and you're over-reacting to the problem."  
  
"Heya Jinn, how ya goin'?!" Gnome yelled enthusiastically, bouncing over to the Wind Elemental.  
  
"Gnome! You still have that horrible excuse of a hat, I see," Jinn replied cordially.  
  
"And yours seems to have shrunk over time to match your brain!" Gnome announced, spinning on one foot before resuming his restless hopping, laughing at his own wit.  
  
"Shade! Luna! Fancy meeting you here!" Wisp exclaimed, floating over to the other two Elementals, who seemed to be engaging in some polite small- talk.  
  
"Hey! Undine! Are you even LISTENING to me?! ARGH, this BURNS me up!"  
  
"Say, Jinn old buddy old pal, I was wondering...."  
  
The trio of travellers watched the chaos unfurl with wide eyes. From the way the Elementals were acting, it seemed as though they hadn't spoken in years, maybe even decades, yet hadn't they all been travelling around with them for all this time? Noting their expressions, Luna explained fondly, "It's been such a long time since we've seen each other in our corporeal forms, you see. It's so much harder to chat otherwise."  
  
"ENOUGH! EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" The Fairy yelled; her voice was surprisingly loud for such a tiny creature.  
  
By this point, Jinn and Gnome had swapped hats, and Salamando was quite literally smoking from rage as Undine calmly inspected her fingernails. Dryad was still clinging wordlessly to Hawk. Instantly, the council of Elementals turned their attention to Goddess's emissary.  
  
"We need to decide which God-Beasts need to be destroyed first," she said evenly. "This is very, very important, so everyone should be honest, and straight to the point." Angela couldn't figure out whether to admire or be offended at the Fairy's gall - speaking to the divine Elementals as though they were children! Okay, some of them ACTED like children, but how old WAS the Fairy anyway? Goddess's messenger or not, she wasn't half as useful as even one of the Elementals was. "We need to figure out which God- Beasts will likely be the strongest, and defeat those before any one God- Beast can grow too powerful. A good place to start would be to figure out which ones will manage to break out of their Stones first."  
  
"Wait a minute," Duran interrupted, looking puzzled. "I thought that when all the Stones were unsealed, the God-Beasts could all break out at once."  
  
"They would have broken out of the magic sealing them in," the Fairy explained patiently. "Some stones relied more heavily on the sealing magic while others relied more on the magic of the Stone itself." Seeing the Mana Knight's still-blank expression, the tiny deity just sighed and waved it off. "The theory behind it is unimportant. We also should probably take into account which God-Beasts are able to wander far. If they're in a more isolated area and run less risk of causing mass damage, they're probably not as important a priority."  
  
"Well, I suppose the God-Beast of Fire won't be much of problem yet then," Salamando conceded grumpily. "It'll be a long time before it finds its way out of the Valley of Flames with all of the extra seals I put in there, and even if it did, there's miles of desert before it can go anywhere else."  
  
Reluctantly, Undine added, "And Fiegmund too will have difficulty in finding its way out of the Labryinth of Ice Walls. Even if it manages to shatter all of my seals and find its way out, the Snowfields are large and unpopulated. And Altena has enough magic to protect it for some time before it would grow strong enough to be a threat."  
  
Wisp, on the other hand, looked very concerned. "There's only a few priests and priestesses in Wendel, and even then all of them only use light magic, which won't be any good against the God-Beast of Light. The only one of enough to power to protect it is the High Priest, and even then, he alone does not have enough power to hold off a God-Beast for long. It's such a peaceful town...."  
  
"Wendel is quite close to the ruins atop the Cave of Waterfalls, too," Hawk mused, chewing on his lip thoughtfully. "Not to mention that area is quite populated - lots of little villages and towns everywhere, and all very unused to conflict."  
  
All present nodded their agreement, concern etched on their faces. Shaking it off, the Fairy turned to the others. "Gnome? Jinn? What about yours?"  
  
Gnome hopped in endless circles, growing slightly agitated. "It's probably broken out of the Stone already. It'll probably go deep into the Gemstone Valley while it gathers strength. Say, I hope the dwarves are okay," he paused mid-hop. "Now that Watts, HE has a really neat hat."  
  
"I must meet this Watts some time," Jinn commented. It was somewhat difficult to take the Wind Elemental seriously with Gnome's nightcap on his head, though. After a moment, he continued, "Oh, yes, God-Beast of Wind... Dangaard I think the Goddess used to call him. The Stone might hold him a little longer yet, but it won't last long - it's been weakening for a while now. And it'll probably take some time before it's strong enough to fly far, but once it can, it might be hard to keep a track of it. Dangaard ought to stay close to Rolante for at least a while, though. Is that good or bad?"  
  
"At least Rolante is full of experienced warriors - they should be able to protect themselves against it for a while," Duran concluded with a sigh. "But I think we'd better put that one as a priority." Angela couldn't help but wonder, in a brief moment of irrational jealousy, whether the Knight just wanted to see Riesz again. Seeing a couple of the Elementals glance at her at that thought, she hurriedly brushed the notion off. Stupid psychic deities.  
  
"I agree," the Fairy affirmed, turning to the remaining three Elementals yet to speak up. "Shade, Luna, Dryad?"  
  
Shade floated languidly in the air, ruffling his black bat-like wings briefly. "I am afraid that the God-Beast of Darkness has been missing for quite a long time. I no longer know where it is, or even whether it is still alive. It could be anywhere."  
  
That certainly didn't help lift the mood. Hurriedly moving on, the Fairy directed her gaze to Luna. "Ah, yes, the God-Beast of the Moon. It will be a difficult one, I fear, but it should still take some time before it can break out of the Stone. I dare say it won't wander beyond the Moonlight Forest for a long time, or even beyond the Moonlit Tower," she reassured them. "And even if it should, Mintos is far enough away to escape harm, and the Beast Kingdom itself is something of a fortress." Nodding, the Fairy turned to the last of the Elementals.  
  
"Dryad?" she asked softly.  
  
"Eeep!" the patron of the Forest of Wonder gasped, huddling closer to Hawk, who seemed to be enjoying his position far more than should be healthy. The other Elementals, minus Shade and Luna, seemed to roll their eyes at this.  
  
"The God-Beast, Dryad. What's your opinion?" the Fairy pressed.  
  
"Well, erm, I don't much know if what I did will be any good....but it won't be able to leave the Forest of Wonder without merging with another God-Beast. The Elves will be safe," she whispered.  
  
Angela was torn whether or not to be impressed with the self-conscious Elemental's raw power, or to be utterly disgusted with her lack of self- confidence. And she was certainly feeling ready to lose her lunch at the shy smile Dryad was directing the Navarrian, who was busy patting her arm comfortingly. Huffing, she pointedly looked in another direction.  
  
"In light of that, I think that we ought to go to.... where was your God- Beast again?" Duran asked Wisp.  
  
"The Ancient Ruins of Light. They're above the Cave of Waterfalls. Your dragon should be able to take us directly there," Wisp affirmed, a slightly relieved expression - if that was at all possible for a being of light - crossing its face.  
  
"Right. We should probably try and handle that one first. Then maybe go to Gemstone Valley to find the God-Beast of Earth."  
  
Angela was too busy wrapped up in her admiration of the Mana Knight's newly acquired leadership skills to even consider the notion that he was probably only favouring Gnome's opinion because that God-Beast was so close to Forcena. Either way, no one bothered contradicting him. All of the God- Beasts had to be killed eventually anyway.  
  
Musing, Duran continued, "Then maybe go find Dangaard before he can fly off and mess things up by merging with another God-Beast?"  
  
The Princess wasn't, however, so enthralled as to wonder whether or not placing Dangaard as the third priority had anything to do with Riesz. Especially seeing as that God-Beast was placed in higher priority to the one that threatened Altena.  
  
Suddenly speaking up, Hawk suggested, "Maybe we should take care of Fiegmund after that. That way, all of the God-Beasts in the more populated areas are taken care of first."  
  
Well, there was a chance that Altena would survive this crazy affair after all, she mused. Not that she doubted her Kingdom's strength for a second. She sent Hawk a grateful glance before she was even fully aware of what she was doing. Seeing his quick grin at Dryad's curious stare, she hurriedly turned her attention away again.  
  
"Hey, if you're going to take care of Fiegmund fourth, then you'd better take care of mine straight after!" Salamando demanded.  
  
Waving it off, the Fairy soothed the fiery being with a simple, "Of course, we wouldn't have it any other way. Okay, so after Navarre, seeing as Dryad's God-Beast seems the most secure, I assume we should go to the Moonlit Tower, then to the Forest of Wonder.... and, well, I'm not too sure what to do about the God-Beast of Darkness, Shade. With all of the other God-Beasts released, if it's still around there's a high chance it will come out of hiding, but...."  
  
Shade didn't seem perturbed, but then, very little seemed to agitate the most mysterious of the Elementals. "I believe the course you have chosen is a wise one."  
  
"Well then, it's decided!" the Fairy announced with a flourish. "To the Ruins of Light!"  
  
There was a prolonged moment of silence. A cool breeze passed through the still-empty courtyard.  
  
Eventually, the Fairy hissed, "Duran, this is where you should call the white dragon!"  
  
The Knight looked blank. "But Hawk is the one who has Flammie's drum."  
  
"Maybe we should go now," Wisp suggested, fading from sight. The other Elementals nodded their emphatic agreement, Gnome and Jinn trading back hats before disappearing, Undine and Salamando exchanging one last glare before vanishing themselves. Shade faded silently, locking eyes briefly with the Delvar while Luna offered her own words of encouragement, then followed suite. Dryad was the last disappear, giving Hawk a quick kiss on the cheek before receding from sight also.  
  
"Don't look so pleased with yourself, desert rat. That's the most action you've had in months," Angela hissed.  
  
"You mean all of those embraces when we ride Flammie count for NOTHING?!" he asked in mock hurt.  
  
Rolling her eyes, the shiny insect turned to their resident thief, interrupting them before they could continue. "Hawk, if you'd do the honours," she suggested impatiently.  
  
The thief blinked. "But I thought that Altena had magical aerial defenses."  
  
Angela sniggered. "Forget, Fairy?"  
  
Blushing crimson, she began to float towards the gate. "Of course I didn't! But I thought Flammie could use a head start while we head to the gates! Let's hurry along then, Duran!"  
  
Shrugging, the Mana Knight led the way through Altena towards what was left of the Gates. Angela followed, the Ranger close on their heels. After a brisk walk throughout the bustling city and through the half-cleared away Gates, Hawk at last called their oversized flying kitten - was it her imagination or was she bigger today? - and they clambered aboard her back.  
  
After the earlier insinuation, this time Angela made certain that she rode up front, clutching on to the clumps of orange fur that adorned the white dragon's head. Better just to risk the thief's roaming hands - she could always blast him away with a Fire Ball later.  
  
_____________________  
  
I hope you liked it. Please don't forget to review! Next chapter: A big big surprise! No, not a new joke. Better! 


	38. Things That Will Always Backfire

WARNING: This chapter has a special warning! This chapter (and this chapter only) contains yaoi in a silly context. Whilst it will not be graphic and will be confined only to this chapter, if it offends your sensibilities please skip this chapter, and please, may people refrain from flaming as you were warned.  
  
Author's note: I humbly beg for your forgiveness for the ridiculous length of time it took me to update! My sincerest apologies! I had a million things going on, THEN I had to go out of town for a couple of weeks, leaving my precious computer (and thus, fanfic) behind, and I did also fret quite a bit over this chapter. Regardless, I gave up fretting and eventually decided that I simply could not have this chain of events happen any other way. In compensation for my tardiness I have made it the longest chapter yet and have also liberally laced it with many Hawk/Angela moments. Be warned: This is the chapter in which I use every romance cliché as many times as possible.  
  
Response to the Reviewers! (Thanks for your patience!):  
  
Feyenal Dragon: Update took forever, I know, I'm so very sorry! I'm amazed so many reviewers have put up with it so far, and will be even more amazed if I have any left after this latest stretch. Sorry, if I told you the surprise via E-Mail for this chapter, it wouldn't be much of a surprise now, would it? I suppose I'll tell you now. The surprise is: I actually made story progress. Wow. Bet you weren't expecting that. (Thanks for the cookie).  
  
Wingnut: I have just put 'lexicon' away into my lexicon of words to use. Five Hundred reviews? (Checks.... Stares.) Did I go to sleep for ten years and no one woke me up? The Duran/Angela canon comes almost entirely from a scene in Angela's ending that only occurs if you have Duran in the party, so I probably have to agree with the presumption. Same with how the Hawk/Riesz canon comes entirely from one scene between the two in Rolante. It's all we've got, really. Thanks for the review!  
  
Sorrow in Shadow: Thanks very much! (Secretly, I agree with you about Hawk, but then, I'm not so sure if that's so secret.) :P  
  
Just Call Me Angels: You and Poptart managed to create a discussion! You should feel proud. Mwa ha ha! The torture! I hope you like this chapter. You contributed to the inspiration (mostly due to the Duran-as-Hulk thoughts sending me insane.)  
  
Demon Wolf: Welcome! Thanks for the high praise! (I'm typing this response extra-slow to help your computer deal with it). Hope you keep reading and reviewing!  
  
Freeloader1: Mind you, Fruits Basket and X wasn't in the same day. (Too much... shojo...). I have been repeatedly called crazy, so perhaps it is true. Ah well, you'll keep my company in my insanity, right? Thanks for the review!  
  
Frickin Evil Poptart: Ah, she picks up on the technicality. I was going for the metaphor, really. (Laughs). A detailed battle on every Godbeast? I think not! I value my fingers! You will see my lazy way of addressing this problem at the start of this chapter. You have impressed me with your observations. If last chapter made you giddy, please ensure that you're sitting in a padded chair for this chapter. Your plot ideas are not so bad! I even kind of used one... so thanks! For that and the review! Woot!  
  
Truewind: ;;  
  
Lady Storm: SURPRISE! WEDGIE! Whoops, sorry. Rabid kittens? That's going to be tough to explain to my neighbours.  
  
Wings of Lead: Ah, once again you pick up on all of my attempts at foreshadowing! I find I quite like your idea about the items for the class change, I might just use that, thanks! I somehow find Flammie far too cute to be carnivorous, but it's an entertaining image. I was considering writing another Hawk fic some day looking at his past, but now that I've said that, someone else will probably beat me to it. (hint hint). Say, this would explain the muse I found in the Artic last week. Thanks very much for the review!  
  
Cookie Pixie: (treasures three cents.... Only 205, 497 cents to go until I can buy a new computer.) Thanks very much, I thought very much the same myself upon reflection, hence the occurrences of last chapter. Always a pleasure to hear from you.  
  
WaterDragonerS: You wrote an SD3 fic? (Throws a parade in your honour). I'll have to stop by and check that out after I upload this chapter. Kentucky Fried Chocobo. LOL. (Adds a mystery thanks for the review.)  
  
Ignorantly Grinning: Thanks!  
  
: Well, the Duran/Riesz thing doesn't actually exist, though everyone seems to think I'm suggesting it, but it's simply just Angela getting irrationally jealous, and inventing relationships that don't exist. Me, write Hawk as a jerk? Where was everyone when I sang his praises? Thanks for the review!  
  
Lone Ronin: Time to go kill stuff indeed. Almost. I keep putting that off somehow. I promised a Carlie appearance? (I really should stop writing Author's Notes while I'm half asleep.) Well, no doubt she'll appear again, but how soon is anyone's guess. I'm afraid that there's crap fanfiction in any fandom (at least, all of the ones I've visited), it's just the bigger fandoms that get more of it I suppose. But there's lots of good ones too. Thanks for the review!  
  
ThunDaGa: Dryad as a HE? I've never even considered it. She always seemed so feminine in her dialogue, but I suppose what sold me on that was the official Squaresoft designs – Dryad definitely had an hourglass shape. Thanks for the review!  
  
The One and Only T: You are psychic. Thanks for the review! Go Hats!  
  
More than enough from me! Hope you all enjoy the chapter, and sorry again for the wait.  
  
Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 38 – Things That Will Always Backfire  
  
By Sinnatious  
  
Angela was sorely regretting not buying better shoes instead of the halfway compromise she made while in Altena. Walking through the Ancient Ruins of Light had tested her new footwear more than she expected, what with rubble and puddles all of the over, and while the Molebear Highlands they were currently making their way through were fairly easy on the feet, she didn't doubt that when they entered Gemstone Valley that would change. The place simply SOUNDED painful to walk on. Hopefully wherever they found the God Beast of Earth, it would be a nice, big, flat clearing, rather than the maze of dangerously unstable pillars they'd confronted the God-Beast of Light on. She was so busy concentrating on her aching feet that she was only half-listening to Duran and Hawk's conversation - with liberal commentary from the Fairy - in the background.  
  
"That thing sure was ugly," Hawk contemplated, obviously still reliving the experience of destroying the first of the God-Beasts; the God-Beast that had been sealed in by the Mana Stone of light.  
  
"Sure was," Duran agreed, "I don't remember anything that ugly since way back at the Cave of Waterfalls." Well, in all honesty, the giant bouncing eye wasn't so much ugly as just plain weird. At least the battle hadn't been a terribly hard one - that is, nowhere near as hard as they were expecting after the grandiose tales of God-Beasts they had heard. Logically, being freed from the Mana Stone of light, the monstrosity of Mana had been terribly weak to Shade's power, which most fortunately, Angela discovered she had in spades. A few sure swipes from Duran's sword and a barrage of Dark Forces and Evil Gates, and one God-Beast was down, with seven left to go. Or six. No one was exactly sure WHAT was going on with that God-Beast of Darkness.  
  
"It wasn't that hard," she announced, "I think this God-Beast stuff is overrated!"  
  
"What about that spell it cast on us - what was it called? Saint Beam?" Duran asked.  
  
"That's what Wisp called it. Turns out those trinkets your mother gave us were useful after all! We could have been dead without them!" the Ranger replied.  
  
"Those TRINKETS happen to be Altenan royal family treasures, used only in times of war!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, they worked a charm! Must have cut the power of that spell in half! I bet I could sell them for a fortune in Byzel."  
  
"YOU'LL DO NO SUCH THING! HOLY BALL!"  
  
Hawk picked himself back up off the ground a moment later, and straightened his robes. "See? What did I tell you?"  
  
"You shouldn't be so overconfident," the Fairy scolded. "After all, the God-Beast of Light was still only half-formed! It hadn't even had the chance to develop a proper hide or armour yet! Rest assured that the remainder of the God-Beasts won't be so easy."  
  
"If we spend forever walking around looking for the damn things, it wouldn't surprise me," Angela grumbled. "It took long enough just to get through the Ruins, and we haven't even made it to the entrance of Gemstone Valley yet! Why couldn't that damn dragon drop us off closer?"  
  
"She was spooked," the Ranger replied, "A sure sign that one of the God- Beasts is near. After all, we had to jump off her back to even get to the ruins."  
  
The Princess shuddered, not particularly wanting to remember that memory. Just because the thief had an uncanny sense of balance didn't mean that the rest of them were immune to falls from great heights.  
  
"The entrance to Gemstone Valley is just ahead," Duran assured them. "But I don't think we'll be able to find the God-Beast before night falls, and I'd rather not walk around down there in the middle of the night if at all possible. I think that we should stop here for the night and recover our strength."  
  
Angela raised an eyebrow at that. She thought for sure that the Forcenan would be keen to kill the God-Beast so close to his home turf as quickly as possible. Then again, his points were all good ones, and though she and Hawk had both slept in Wendel's inn after coming down from the Ruins, the Fairy had been so kind as to inform her that the Knight had spent the entire time wide awake fretting over the loss of the Mana Sword and the danger to Forcena. Shrugging, she found a suitable rock to settle herself on. After staying with the dwarves and the elves, and the even less enjoyable times of napping on Booskaboo's back, camping no longer so seriously offended her royal sensibilities.  
  
"You'll have to set up a fire to keep the wildlife away - the molebears seemed more skittish than normal. And someone will have to stay up and keep watch," the Fairy ordered.  
  
The Delvar glared at the tiny deity. "Who died and made you Goddess? We're all going along with this crazy quest out of the sheer generosity of our hearts, gnat! Don't presume to boss us around!"  
  
There was a long silence as everyone present attempted to contemplate Angela being generous. Eventually, the thought became too difficult to handle, and Hawk broke the silence by unceremoniously dropping a few of his things on the ground, then announcing, "Well then, I'm going to go hunt down some dinner. Anybody here allergic to rabite? No? I'm off then!"  
  
Trying not to blanch at the idea of eating roasted rabite, even IF Riesz had once assured her that it was delicious, she shifted to a better rock partially under the shade of a particularly tall tree and began running a hand through her hair in the effort to find any twigs or leaves that may have wound up there during the trek through the Highlands. She positioned herself just so that she'd have a good view of Duran without being too conspicuous - he had set himself up on another rock nearby and was gazing at the sky that was turning a myriad of reds and ochres as the sun began to dip towards the horizon. He was still worrying over the Sword, no doubt. The Forcenan had still been quite useful in battle, but outside of that, he often seemed distracted and didn't even talk to Hawk or the Fairy as much as he normally did. Koren was obviously still very high on the mission list, she imagined.  
  
It was then that the Delvar noticed the small pouch the thief had left behind. Usually he carried it inconspicuously on his belt, so she'd never really wondered what he kept in there before. Now, with Hawk not in the immediate vicinity, was her opportunity to find out. Still, knowing that the Ranger had a tendency to appear with no warning, she opened it cautiously and as quietly as possible. Inside were many satchels of different powders and herbs, to her surprise, all labelled in Hawk's distinctive handwriting. Most were what she expected a wily thief to carry around - sleeping powders, powders to mask someone's scent - presumably how he had originally avoided the Beastmen in Jad until their escape, one to make a mist of all things, a couple of energy herbs....  
  
The one that caught the flirtatious Princess' eye, though, was one labelled 'aphrodisiac'. She knew that the guy was known for hitting on ladies to an alarming degree, but still, he struck her as the type who was more likely to just lose out with the ladies in preference to using an underhanded trick like an aphrodisiac. But what WAS he doing with a love powder? It obviously hadn't been used - the package was still sealed. She was glad - she wasn't sure if she wanted to imagine who he could have used it on.  
  
The sunset seemed to brighten for just a moment. The Delvar had an idea.  
  
She cast a glance over to where Duran was sitting on a rock, brooding as was the new usual. What could it hurt? Maybe if his own natural inclinations were boosted, she'd be able to actually get his attention for more than ten seconds!  
  
Before either her conscience or logic could convince her otherwise, she scanned the instructions quickly - he even wrote instructions! Then again, he had so many of the crazy satchels it'd probably be nearly impossible to memorise them all. 'Throw powder into the air by target and hold your breath for one minute until it dissipates to avoid self-contamination. Target will breathe the compound in, and it will immediately take effect.' Huh, simple. And made all the more effective with Jinn's help.  
  
Grinning manically, Angela took a deep breath, held it, then all in one movement ripped open the satchel, threw the fine powder into the air and used Jinn's power to summon a breeze just powerful enough to waft it in the docile swordsman's direction. Counting down in her head, she finally let out a breath and waited to see whether it had worked or if Hawk was just playing mind games.  
  
Nothing. Duran hadn't even lifted his head at the sudden breeze. Angela began to feel annoyed, and looked more closely at the instructions, wondering if maybe she'd missed something. Hey, she was a royal princess, she didn't miss anything, but maybe....  
  
Oh wait, there was an extra note attached. "Caution - remain hidden! First thing target sees they will fall desperately in love with!" She read out loud. Oh well, then, the only thing Duran could fall in love with was the sunset. She'd better get over there and - Angela suddenly muttered out a string of expletives that no well-brought up girl should have known when she saw that Hawk had returned with a dead rabite in hand and was tapping Duran on the shoulder.  
  
Duran turned as if in a bit of a daze, glazed eyes finally focusing on Hawk's face. Hawk was repeating himself, after not getting any response the first time from the spaced-out knight. "Hey, Duran, I said it's time to start making dinner already! You have the honours today!" He thrust the dead rabite in the Knight's face impatiently.  
  
"Hawk?" Duran asked, in a tone of voice that didn't sound quite right for the swordsman.  
  
'Shitshitshit', Angela thought, getting up, looking around in panic for something, she wasn't sure what. What could she do?! What was she supposed to do? When she was trained to be Queen she'd never been taught how to deal with situations like this! Where was the Fairy when you needed her?  
  
"I don't think Hawk's going to be too happy with you, Princess." Fairy in question chose this moment to shimmer into existence next to the panicking princess.  
  
"What do you mean?" Angela demanded. "And why did you come out now?"  
  
The Fairy just pointed one tiny, slender hand towards the thief and soldier.  
  
Hawk was frowning, waving a hand in front of the dazzled Knight. "Duran? You okay? Angela didn't flash you or something, did she? You look like you've fallen in love or something."  
  
Goddess, if he only knew how close he was to the truth. She should probably warn him, but she wasn't sure what Duran's reaction would be yet, though the blanching look on the Fairy's face suggested the worst. Okay, warn him then.  
  
"Um, Hawk!" She called out. "You should probably watch out!"  
  
"What?" Hawk looked over, and Angela cursed herself, for that one fatal moment of distraction was when Duran chose to make his move.  
  
In one swift movement that surprised even the wily thief, Duran reached out, snatched his hand, and pulled the shocked Navarrian into a deep kiss. Hawk's eyes were as wide as saucers as he tried to pull away, but the Knight simply stood up with him, not letting him out of it for something like a minute.  
  
There was a gagging sound to Angela's right. It was obviously too much out- of-characterness for the Fairy to handle, and to be honest, she felt pretty sick too, though that may have also been the wracking waves of guilt and irrational jealousy. None of them looked more confused, or as scared witless, as Hawk though. Finally able to breathe again, the thief yelled out, "Duran, what's got into you?! You're supposed to like ANGELA, remember! If we want to be general, you like GIRLS! As a matter of fact, I prefer girls too!" He tried to wrench away, but even the master of escaping narrow situations couldn't break Duran's vice-like grip on his wrist. The Knight was possessed! "If it bothers you that much, I can cook the rabite just this once, okay?!"  
  
"Hey! You shouldn't say stuff like that out loud!" Angela complained belatedly at the Navarrian's open comment about her Duran's not-yet- existent relationship, momentarily forgetting her situation.  
  
Hawk was still trying to free his wrist to get as far away as possible without hurting Duran - not that it would be that easy. Duran was after all, physically stronger than him, and had no intention of letting his newfound love interest escape before he could arrange a marriage. He seemed to be in the middle of spouting nonsensical love poetry that sounded disturbingly like limericks he had learned in the army barracks of Forcena. Some plans of introducing the family seemed to be thrown in there as well. Seemed she had been somewhat accurate in predicting that when the Knight DID get romantic, it was certainly in an old-fashioned sort of way.  
  
The Ranger was finally beginning to get more than suspicious. "ANGELA! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"  
  
The Princess scratched the back of her head in embarrassment whilst the Fairy sighed next to her, moving in to sit on her shoulder to watch the whole ugly affair play out. Hawk, busy yelling at her, once again failed to noticed Duran's next move.  
  
Angela watched in horror as Duran pulled a squirming and pale Hawk closer in to him, and leant in to whisper something in his ear. The pale Hawk suddenly blushed a deep crimson, and Angela was aware of the Fairy gagging again.  
  
"What's your problem this time?"  
  
"I'm connected to Duran's mind," she admitted. "And that was just dirty. You really have to help poor Hawk."  
  
"How?!"  
  
"Why do you think I know the answer to everything?! We don't have to deal with this kind of stuff in the Mana Holyland!"  
  
Angela resumed looking around for what she didn't know. Maybe there was an antidote! "Hawk! I, um, I mean Duran breathed in some of your aphrodisiac, is there an antidote in here somewhere?!"  
  
Somehow she thought a solution to the problem might calm the thief down, even as he was being wrestled into a compromising position on the ground, but it only made him worse. "WHAT? You did WHAT? Do you have any idea how powerful that stuff is?"  
  
"Okay, okay! I screwed up! Just please tell me there's an antidote!" she begged, on her knees rummaging through the pouch looking for the appropriate label.  
  
"There is no antidote, it's- Mmmmph-" Hawk was cut off from yelling at the magician as the suddenly hormone-crazed Duran smothered him again.  
  
"I'm too young to be watching this, the goddess would be so displeased," Fairy muttered.  
  
Once Hawk had managed to push the eager Knight back temporarily, he continued, "That stuff lasts for like twelve hours!"  
  
Twelve hours? Duran was freaking them all out beyond belief in less than five minutes! Hawk would never be able to survive that kind of mental trauma! The Fairy looked like she was going to crack from it already!  
  
"What do I do?" she asked, wringing her hands helplessly.  
  
Hawk currently reminded her of a caged wild animal with his frantic scrabbling. "Just get him off me! I don't care how you do it!"  
  
"Ummm, ummm.... I know!" Angela held out her staff and called upon Undine, who materialized into the air in a matter of seconds. "Undine, we need a lot of cold water!"  
  
"And hurry it up," the Fairy added next to her, covering her eyes.  
  
The water spirit seemed puzzled at the situation, but complied, as a large volume of icy water appeared above the two struggling men and fell to the ground, drenching them. With Duran temporarily stunned, Hawk used an elaborate series of twisting movements to get out from underneath the Knight's grip, and scurried up the nearest tree with only the agility a crazed and downright scared fighter possesses.  
  
The cold water hadn't seemed to take care of all the effect, as moments later Duran was at the foot of the tree, calling up to Hawk. But the Ranger knew there was no way the burly Knight could ever make it up that tree without help, and didn't budge.  
  
"But Haaaaaaawk," Duran whined, then grinned, seeing Angela standing nearby with a guilty look on her face. "Hey Princess, could you give me a boost up?"  
  
"No way, and have Hawk kill me even more slowly than he's going to kill me now? I think not," she retorted.  
  
Grumbling, Duran seemed to content to sit at the base of the tree and light a fire to dry himself off so that he didn't freeze, given that he had just been doused with a large amount of ice-cold water and night was beginning to fall. He set to work cleaning and cooking the forgotten rabite - it was something for him to do while he waited for his new-found lover to come down.  
  
Angela stared. No kidding that was powerful stuff. Duran's change was.... so eerie.  
  
She sat down and ate dinner, realising in the back of her mind that she didn't even taste the roasted rabite, keeping a wary eye on Duran and not sure what to do next. With no input from Hawk huddled up in the tree she decided to just wait until Duran either gave up or went to sleep. He was so sexy though, he'd gone after Hawk like a tiger, if only things hadn't backfired so horribly.....  
  
She was waiting a long time. It was lucky that she HAD slept in the inn in Wendel, otherwise she'd never have been able to stay awake. It was growing near daybreak, and probably not that long until the aphrodisiac wore off, when Duran finally nodded off to sleep in front of the fire. The Fairy, having become bored at one point, emerged again once he was asleep and flew up into the tree to see the freaked-out thief. After a minute or two, she floated back down. "I think you should probably check on Hawk. I'll lend you a bit of my power to get you up there."  
  
Angela nodded, moving to the other side of the tree so that Duran wouldn't be able to interfere in time, not that the one-tracked minded knight would notice anything else at this point in time. She made a mental note to also ban all love potions and similar products when she was Queen of Altena, so that future foolish Princesses would not make the same mistake as she. The Fairy lent her just enough energy to give her a big enough boost to reach the first branch - how did Hawk get up here? Sheer adrenaline? - and she climbed the rest of the way to where the thief sat near the crown of the tree.  
  
Once she reached up to the branch he was sitting on, she sat there, letting her feet dangle. She was afraid to meet those golden eyes - no doubt in a couple of days, Hawk would find the whole situation ridiculously hilarious, but that HAD to be a shock to the system. It wasn't every day your friend - especially when your friend is a straight guy - decides they want to make love to you, and suffered a major twist in attitude while they were at it.  
  
"Ummm... sorry?" she finally offered.  
  
"I am going to kill you," he said quietly. "And I am going to kill you very slowly."  
  
Well, there wasn't much she could do about that, she supposed. She just hoped that Hawk wasn't serious. "Eh heh heh..... What a disaster...... Hey! What WERE you doing with an aphrodisiac anyway?" her tone quickly changed to accusatory. Better to keep him from getting angry at her by keeping him on the defensive, she figured. She dangled her bare legs over the branch. It was cold this morning; she wished she'd worn her leggings or something. Hopping from continent to continent, she often forgot about the different climates and seasons.  
  
"Thieves use it to keep people occupied. It's the ultimate distraction; usually people overcome with passion don't notice someone breaking into their lockbox. You can even get into Rolante castle using it. Though, two amazonesses suddenly falling in love does sometimes cause a bit of a ruckus. And then there's the morning-after effect....."  
  
She laughed, not nervously this time - apparently Hawk didn't hate her TOO much if he could joke around. "Well, I'm glad you at least had a good excuse. I was starting to think you were some kind of pervert!" Which was no different to usual, but it didn't hurt to be nice when someone had just screwed up in a very embarrassing way.  
  
"Yeah well, I try....." He struggled to mask a cough.  
  
Surprised, the princess turned to actually look at the Ranger for the first time. He was huddled against the tree miserably, his forehead glistening with sweat, and shaking almost invisibly.  
  
"Hawk..... You're shivering!"  
  
He tried to shrug. "Well, you did soak the two of us with ice water and I've been sitting up here in the cold for most of the night. It's natural to be a little cold."  
  
"Jeez, you should have come down!" She held a hand to his forehead. "You've got a fever! You idiot!"  
  
"Yeah, I guess so. But we don't really have to worry about catching colds in the desert. I didn't even think of it."  
  
Angela rolled her eyes. "It's obvious. You're - HAWK!"  
  
The Princess almost shrieked as she noticed the thief had slumped in his nook of the tree, unconscious, the effort from talking obviously too much. She grabbed him before he could slide to his death, calling frantically to the Fairy to help them down. She floated up a moment later, frowning at Hawk's condition, purple hair hanging over his face.  
  
"I THOUGHT this would happen. You should have gone up there earlier to help him, Angela - after all, this is all your fault!"  
  
"Oh, shut up with your editorialising, do you think I even DARED go NEAR the foot of that tree with a potentially jealous Duran standing guard?!"  
  
"Which wouldn't have even occurred if you hadn't decided to go through Hawk's stuff!"  
  
"I was curious!" Angela nearly dropped Hawk to shake a fist at the Fairy, but remembered herself at the last minute.  
  
The Fairy rolled her eyes, wings fluttering extra hard as if to accentuate her opinion. "Well, after that painful display your pathetic crush on Duran is horribly obvious to everyone..... except Duran."  
  
The sorceress glared at the little deity. "Big deal! There's only three of us here, and of course I would know about it! And as for Hawk, he's currently unconscious and probably sick as a dog, so will you STOP lecturing me and help us down here?"  
  
"Fine," she mumbled, using some of the tree's natural energy to float them down to the ground, following moments later. Once she landed, Angela hurriedly laid Hawk's limp form on the ground. Chewing her lip, she regarded the fallen Ranger for a moment, the Fairy alighting on her shoulder. Casting a quick glance at the still-sleeping Knight, the Princess sighed. He wouldn't be any help, and if he wasn't over the effects of breathing in that powder yet, she wasn't terribly sure if she WANTED his help.  
  
"Let's see," she said out loud, more or less for the Fairy's benefit, even if the little insect could read her thoughts. "In Altena, people who go out into the snow catch chills all the time. The doctors would first....." Angela paled, but gritted her teeth in determination. Such things shouldn't bother her, of all people. In Altena, the doctors would always first get them out of their wet clothes and into dry ones.  
  
She immensely enjoyed it every time Duran would take off his shirt, such as when he had in the desert. Why was she so nervous about the idea of Hawk then?  
  
Laughing to hide her embarrassment, again more for the Fairy than anyone else, Angela pranced over to Hawk's other pouch, hoping against hope that he had a spare tunic stuffed in there somewhere. After some effort, she located one that was a couple of shades darker than the one he was currently wearing.  
  
"Must be for when he goes robbing people," Fairy commented.  
  
Angela cast her only conscious companion a dirty look. "He's helping you on your crazy little quest with Duran to kill the God-Beasts, isn't he? And it's his so-called 'robbing' skills that's saved us and your tiny ass several times now, isn't it?"  
  
The little deity huffed. "Since when did you start defending him?"  
  
"Since you started picking on him when he wasn't conscious to defend himself!"  
  
"Don't be so uptight! You don't think I'm worried about him? We're lost without him! Um, Angela, what are you doing?"  
  
Angela was proceeding to remove Hawk's tunic. "This thing is soaked. He'll never get warmer with this on. Jeez, what's all this stuff?" To say she was shocked by the number of shruiken, throwing daggers, and even a couple of arrows for Goddess's sake, that all fell to the ground, not to mention a packet of needles and his legendary pair of short swords - would have been an understatement.  
  
Even the Fairy was mildly impressed by Hawk's miniature arsenal. "Wow, who needs Inventory when you have Hawk?"  
  
Angela found herself not paying enough attention to the Fairy to even ask what Inventory was as she found herself blushing at the sight of Hawk's naked, tanned torso. He wasn't all bulging muscles like Duran, but it was still ... her discomfort was momentarily displaced when she noticed a garish scar streaked across the thief's stomach, stark against his bronzed skin.  
  
"Hey, Fairy, where do you think he got this?" Angela asked, laying a hand on the thief's chest to rise and fall comfortingly with his breathing.  
  
The Fairy left her perch upon the larger girl's shoulder and hovered above Hawk, illuminating him with her faint light, though it was less noticeable now that the sun was beginning to rise. She frowned, not an uncommon expression on their guardian's face.  
  
"I have no idea. He's never received this kind of wound from any battles since he's been with us. It must have come from before."  
  
"But who could have done this kind of damage to Hawk of all people?" Angela protested, finally removing her hand after the Fairy gave her a stern look. She was so concerned she didn't even notice the compliment she'd accidentally awarded the thief. It just seemed so weird that someone she could hardly ever hit with even her broader area spells would ever get wounded so badly.  
  
The Fairy looked uncomfortable, but finally admitted, "Well, he had to escape from Navarre, didn't he? I doubt that would have been easy, considering the kind of trouble we had with just a few ninja. I'm thinking that when we met Wisp he healed it up for Hawk. He should have told me."  
  
Angela was beginning to get mad, suddenly recalling how painfully the thief had cringed when Riesz had whacked him with her spear handle back when they first met at the inn in Jad. "He was injured that badly all the time until we found Wisp?! You're right, he should have told us!"  
  
"Actually, I was saying that Wisp should have told me."  
  
On cue, the Elemental of Light shimmered into existence in front of them. "What's your problem, Fairy?" Wisp asked, trying to sound as congenial as he could.  
  
The Fairy glared at the Elemental. Deciding that maybe its presence would make things worse instead of better, the Elemental of Light vanished back into nothingness a moment later.  
  
"Hey, wait!" Angela cursed. She wanted answers, dammit! She'd just have to beat them out of Hawk later.  
  
Hawk! She's almost forgotten about him!  
  
Hurriedly pulling the dry tunic on over his torso, Angela breathed a brief sigh of relief. Why was she so frazzled? It was just Hawk. Granted, for someone who acted like such a ladies' man he displayed a freakish amount of modesty, but still, it wasn't like she hadn't seen a good-looking guy with his shirt off before.  
  
Chewing once again on her lip, she briefly regarded him. His pants were still soaked, but given her current reactions, she'd probably pass out if she tried to change those. The Fairy would too. He'd be warm enough as is.  
  
She moved him closer to the fire, grabbed Duran's blanket and wrapped the unconscious Ranger in it instead. The sudden rush of cold shocked Duran awake. The Knight blinked and looked about blearily, seeming confused. His eyes focused on Angela kneeling protectively over an unconscious and an uncomfortably pale Hawk, ready with staff just in case the Knight decided to take advantage of the unconscious Navarrian.  
  
"What's going on? Hey, what's wrong with Hawk?"  
  
Angela blinked, and looked at the Fairy, who shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm linked to his thoughts, so I can assure you that he really doesn't remember anything. He was watching the sunset, then he woke up."  
  
Duran's hearing was sharper than it usually appeared. "Do you know something I don't, Fairy?"  
  
The little deity starting sweating, and moved in closer to Angela, trying to hide behind her violet hair for protection.  
  
"Don't you dare bail on me!" she whispered fiercely. "This is as much your fault as it is mine!"  
  
"MY fault?! HOW?!"  
  
"For being so useless!"  
  
Duran coughed politely, trying to get their attention.  
  
Angela sighed. Well, at least Duran was easier to lie to than most. "Erm.... we were attacked by some of the wildlife last night. Wisp healed us all up, but, ah, it took a while to find Hawk and he developed a fever." Was that the best she could do?! All those years of lying to her mother about sneaking out at night or skipping Jose's lessons, and the best she could come up with a feeble story that had more holes in it than the Cave of Waterfalls! She must still be in shock.  
  
"Oh," Duran accepted. "I didn't even realise. Thanks, Princess, I cannot apologise enough for failing to be on my guard." Grand, he was pulling the 'Princess' routine on her again. She was beginning to wonder if even the aphrodisiac would have worked, had she not been held to the same cliché of messing up the application of a love powder as everyone else. She was becoming quite sure that as far as she was concerned, Duran would have been immune, simply because she was royalty.  
  
"No, no, can't have the Mana Knight tiring himself out before we even get to the God-Beast," she dismissed casually. If he was going to pull that act on her, she'd start pulling the 'Mana Knight' act on him.  
  
"Well, we really should continue on. Shall I call up Wisp to take care of it?" Duran suggested. Angela blinked at him for a long moment, still trying to reconcile the Duran she was facing now with the possessed Knight of the evening before.  
  
"I don't know if that would do much good. Even Wisp can't cure the common cold," the Fairy admitted.  
  
Duran sighed, rubbing his face tiredly. "How long do you think it will take him to recover enough to continue?"  
  
"Some people in Altena can take up to a week, but given the situation, he'll probably be ready to move by the end of the day," Angela conceded. She really had no idea, but she knew if they waited any longer than that, the Knight was bound to get impatient and move on without them, and she wasn't so sure she wanted to be left alone with the thief right now.  
  
"Right. Well, seeing as we're standing in-between Forcena and the God- Beast at the moment, I suppose we can spare a day. I'm kind of tired for some reason anyway, I suppose, and I'd rather all three of us go into battle. If we're still vulnerable to the local wildlife attacking us, we probably shouldn't take chances with a God-Beast," he decided after a prolonged moment of thinking it through. He added as an afterthought, "Is staying her sufficient, or do we have to return to an Inn?"  
  
Murmuring from the thief indicated he was coming around, so Angela hurried to his side before she could answer the Knight. "Angie? Is that you? Did I die and go to heaven?"  
  
The Princess raised an eyebrow at that. "You, go the Heaven? Unlikely. How do you feel?" It was weird being in this position. Previously it had only ever been her fawned over by royal healers or servants whenever she fell ill. Such duties never fell to the Princess of a Kingdom, after all. But it wasn't like Duran would know what to do, and one could hardly trust the Fairy to do anything right, so she'd simply have to do.  
  
"Like a rabite is jumping on my head, but never mind. We have to go find the God-Beast right? Ack! Duran!" Hawk's words came out in a jumble - he was clearly disorientated as he leapt - well, more like swayed - to his feet while Duran watched in confusion.  
  
"Ahahahah, don't worry Hawk, it wore off," she assured the thief hurriedly before the Forcenan could grow suspicious. Hawk seemed to relax, at least, a little anyway, though he still kept a wary eye on the Knight in case. Wow, that was going to be an awkward situation to deal with later on.  
  
"Well, that's good I suppose. We're off to kill the God-Beast then? When do we leave?" Hawk asked, eyes wandering before finally focusing in on the Fairy, who flitted about him nervously. His brow creased as though the rapid movement was causing him a headache.  
  
"Jeez, Fairy, stop it, you're making ME dizzy with all of that buzzing about. And you! Don't you even THINK about running off to fight the God- Beast like that! Duran's decided to spend a day here so you can get rid of that damn fever before we go fighting any monsters. So lie back down and don't move unless I tell you to!" she ordered in her best monarch voice, finally pushing the thief down by the shoulders when he seemed reluctant to comply.  
  
"Why Angie, I never expected you to be so forward!"  
  
It seemed that the thief was feeling better already. Of course, with the Goddess's blessing, it didn't seem like anything would keep them down long. Before, with only the help of the Fairy, they had all somehow survived a ridiculously long fall to the bottom of the Cave of Waterfalls. A simply cold shouldn't keep any of them down for more than a few hours in that case, making her relieved that her rushed assumption of day's recuperation wasn't as far off as she feared. "Remind me to flay you with a spell when you're feeling better."  
  
"I feel fine!" the Ranger protested. "I've got some herbs in my pouch that'll take care of it well enough! I'll just take those and we can be on our way!"  
  
"Honestly! Are all men such lousy patients?!" she reprimanded him. "I SAID, if you weren't listening, to just lie down and take it easy and I'll take care of it. We hardly need you exhausting yourself by dragging yourself around when you're sick. I can find the herbs if you want, but even then, you're not budging until at least this afternoon!"  
  
Hawk made a face at the fuss she was creating, but begrudgingly settled himself, attempting to mask another cough as he did so. Angela just rolled her eyes. She supposed, she reflected a little sadly, that the thief probably simply was used to having to take care of himself if he ever got sick or injured. She somehow had difficulty imagining any of the ninjas or thieves in the Guild doing so. Then again, wasn't there that girl - what was her name? - Jessica? She snorted at the image in her head. The thief would have probably spent all of his time trying to be too macho for his own good around such a dainty flower.  
  
'Thinking bad thoughts about the dead and departed now, are we? What other lows can you stoop to in the next twenty-four hours?' the Fairy's voice echoed from inside her head.  
  
'Shut up, gnat! And get out! Go bother Duran for a while!'  
  
Huffing, the Fairy left her head and floated over to a concerned-looking Duran, but not before the tiny deity flashed her a smirk that implied the gnat knew something that she didn't. Goddess's emissary or not, she was going to kill that fly someday.  
  
"Duran, why don't you go kill some rabites for us to cook? Hawk didn't.... um, that is, none of us.... had the chance to eat last night."  
  
Looking pleased that he could at least be useful, the Knight nodded affirmatively and strode off to complete his mission. Angela let out a sigh of relief she didn't know she'd been holding in when he was gone. That taken care of, she resumed rummaging through Hawk's pouch for any curative herbs. Wisp might not have a cure for the common cold, but there was a good bet that one existed on the black market.  
  
She finally located a bag of herbs for fever reduction and a powder that was labelled as a cough suppressant. "I'm not even going to ask where you found these," she sighed, trying not to picture Hawk ransacking clinics.  
  
"Good," he replied, taking the herbs and sitting up. "Um, could I have some water please?"  
  
The thief was being polite. He was more ill than she thought. She dug out an empty flask and filled it, once again courtesy of Undine. She was beginning to understand why her mother was particularly fond of that Elemental.  
  
"I suppose those herbs take a while to take effect?" Angela guessed.  
  
Shoulders sagging in defeat, Hawk nodded, looking uncomfortable. "I hear they have better ones to Altena."  
  
They did. It was nice to hear that her own Kingdom hadn't been too badly ravaged by bandits without her knowledge. Well, now was as good a time as any to satisfy her curiosity. "So, Hawk, seeing as neither of us are going anywhere, humour me. How did you get that scar?"  
  
The stony look that came over the Navarrian's face as he glanced down, finally noticing his changed tunic, only served to pique her interest. Finally, seeing the determined expression on the Princess's face, he admitted, "Eagle."  
  
"What?" It sounded like a name, one that seemed familiar, but she couldn't pin why.  
  
"Eagle. Jessica's older brother, and Flamekhan's son. He was my best friend. I crashed in on Eagle confronting Bigieu, and she possessed him. He was a lot stronger than I was. He got me with his sword before I managed to knock him out. It probably would have been fatal if he didn't resist her influence at the last minute." The thief's voice had a bitter tone to it. He shrugged. "It was all for naught. She killed him anyway, and then threw me into prison to die. I was lucky Nikita managed to break me out."  
  
No wonder Hawk had been so upset at his failure to save Jessica. Fighting off a wave of awkwardness, the Princess simply patted the thief on the shoulder comfortingly, feeling like a right idiot as she did so. He confessed something like that, and all she could do was sit there and pat his shoulder?  
  
The moment was broken when a voice sounded from within the Princess's head again. 'Awww, that's so touching.'  
  
Angela flailed her arms about as if she were having a fit. "DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO GO WITH DURAN?!"  
  
'And miss this touching display of sentimentality? Actually, Duran's just coming back now.' The cheeky Fairy reappeared on her shoulder. Conniving little....  
  
Duran crashed back into the clearing, carrying some rabites to make up for the one Hawk never had the chance to eat the night before. He grinned at them. "Hawk! Take your time to get your strength, back, okay? Princess, I hate to ask, but do you know how to cook rabite? I noticed some molebears lurking around here and I thought I'd go take care of them."  
  
"Um, yeah, okay," she agreed hesitantly, deciding that now wasn't the time to confess that all of the instances she'd actually cooked something in her entire life had been in the time she'd been in exile.  
  
"Great, I'll be back in a few minutes then."  
  
With no further ceremony, Duran headed out on patrol, while Angela contemplated how exactly to roast a rabite. Seeing Hawk's bemused expression, she hurried through the gruesome task of skinning it, trying to look like she knew what she was doing before he could even consider commenting. Several minutes more with Salamando's power, the rabites were done, just as Duran entered the clearing again, wiping his sword clean of molebear's blood.  
  
"Finished cooking already?" the Knight asked, seeming surprised. Grinning in satisfaction, she served him some of the rabite, then giving Hawk some and taking a serving for herself last. She waited to see how Duran reacted before taking a bite herself.  
  
The Knight, seemingly hungry despite the fact that he had eaten the evening before, dug in hungrily, taking a generous bite then chewing. A moment later, his jaw stilled and his eyes bulged, as he ran to the bushes and spat the bite he'd taken out. A moment later, looking appalled for his manners, he apologised to the Princess profusely. "Oh, excuse me Princess, I suppose I wasn't quite as hungry as I realised. I mean no offense."  
  
Angela struggled to keep her face from falling as she took a bite herself, though managed to at least gag hers down. He was right. It was appalling. How did she manage to find a way to make something as supposedly simple as roasted rabite taste so horrible?!  
  
"You must have a special skill to make something taste that bad, Princess. I was under the impression that Duran would eat nearly anything," the Fairy remarked.  
  
"Princesses never need to know how to cook, gnat! Just as I wouldn't expect a chef to be able to run a Kingdom!" she retorted angrily at the bruise to her ego. So she wasn't the image of the perfect housewife! She had bigger things at stake!  
  
She suddenly realised that Duran was staring, and after a moment of hopefulness, realised that it wasn't at her. For half a second she had a mild panic attack, thinking that the aphrodisiac hadn't quite worn off, when she realised the Knight's expression was one of utmost shock and maybe a little respect. She turned, surprised to see Hawk calmly chewing, already halfway through his portion of rabite.  
  
He blinked at them. "What? It's good."  
  
Well, one's sense of taste did tend to get dulled when ill. Either that or the herbs weren't working and he'd taken a toll for the worse and was now delirious. All the logic aside, she couldn't help but allow herself to wallow in the compliment for a moment, even if a tiny part of her mind suspected Hawk was trying to flirt with her.  
  
Shaking himself from his state of incredulity at the Navarrian's mental strength, Duran took his chance to escape. "Well then, I'll go on back on watch while you two eat. Have fun!" He half ran from the campsite, likely fearing a literal firestorm of the Princess's wrath to begin raining down any moment.  
  
Shrugging, Angela ate as much of the rabite as she could in a bid to reclaim her dignity as a cook. That wasn't much, as every bite she had to fight the urge to throw up, before she eventually gave up and threw the rest into the bushes. If nothing else, perhaps it could act as poison for any molebears who made it past Duran's guard. Hawk finished his own portion not much later.  
  
Angela noticed then that Hawk, despite all of his denials, was looking exhausted - she had almost forgotten that neither of them had slept the night before. And if the flushed pallor of his face was anything to go by, the medicine was still battling with his fever. Sighing, she found some of the sleeping powder he'd used on Carlie once, and stealthily slipped some into his flask of water. "You have to keep your liquids up. Have a drink."  
  
Apparently too tired to even argue, he took the flask and drank deeply. His eyes widened at his sudden sluggishness. "You...," he choked out, dropping the flask. "Sleeping powder.... I think I'm a bad influence on you."  
  
The Princess couldn't help but grin as his words faded off into a murmur and he fell to the ground, unconscious. She settled on her knees next to his sleeping form. Duran would likely be on patrol for a while, treading a wide circle around the camp, so with little else to occupy herself, Angela concentrated on forming a cooling mist around the Ranger to keep him comfortable until the herbs managed to kick in. The Delvar suspected the Knight felt bad for his supposed failure earlier in being knocked out, and was making up for it now. Not that he really had anything to make up for, but the Princess certainly wasn't going to deal with the repercussions of dissuading him of that notion.  
  
It must have been at least an hour later, Duran only coming back to check on them once, that Angela noticed that the thief's temperature had gone down and he seemed to be sleeping more comfortably. Relieved, though unwilling to examine the reasons why, she covered him with the blanket and settled herself back to make sure the fever had truly broken. She attempted to stifle a yawn. She hadn't slept at all the night before either, and all of this taking care of sick people stuff was truly exhausting, she decided, suddenly feeling keenly sorry for the many court healers she had tortured over the years.  
  
Sighing, she shifted to keep herself aware. She failed to see what was driving her to keep vigilance like this - after all, this was hardly something that would keep Hawk down for long. She herself had tried everything in her power to kill the Ranger. From Holy Balls to Fire Balls to her potentially lethal cane, and the damn thief still lived. Flourished, even.  
  
Slowly, she felt her head nodding. Damn Navarrian. He'd be the death of her, if the Fairy didn't manage to kill them first.  
  
Please don't forget to review, but no flames please. 


	39. Into the Valley of Worthless Gems

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.  
  
Author's note: Just when you all thought I couldn't possibly get any worse at updating, I surprised even myself! The usual apologies. This chapter isn't even a terribly long one to make up for it! (Gasp! The scandal!) To be honest, I'm still not happy with how this chapter came out, but I figured you'd all waited long enough for it as it was. I'm going to blame it on Lone Ronin for the breakage of both of funny bones, leaving me to rely entirely on my humerus, which, as we all know, is nowhere near as hilarious as the other bones. Regardless, thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy the chapter anyway.  
  
Response to the Reviewers! (A record number of reviews for a chapter! So it's a bit long today. Those who don't want to read the response to review, skip on ahead to the pretty line.):  
  
The Peril: Welcome to the SD3 fandom! Patient readers as especially welcome. (Impatient ones are too, at their own peril.) Thanks for the review!  
  
DW-881: (does a dance) Your computer lives! Try not to laugh yourself to death – as complimentary as it is, that would bring me all sorts of trouble, and think about how long updates would take THEN! Thanks for the review!  
  
Oxi-Nu: Tada!  
  
Vinter: New reviewer! Welcome, and thanks for the review. Hope you keep reading.  
  
Wingnut: Well, I suppose the Full Metal Hugger uh.... Hugs the ground? I don't really know either. Kevin and Angela? In the game? That's a new one on me. Wow. Thanks very much as usual for your review!  
  
Mig-31: Indeed. I'm obvious, I know. Don't you worry, you legion of Dangaard (or maybe just Flammie) lovers, I will write the God-Beast of Wind. I even wrote half of the battle of the God-Beast of Earth, just to warm up. What makes you think I of all people would want a patch to make Angela naked in the game?! Ah well, it IS pretty funny – I'm sure someone out there is already looking for it now that you've mentioned it ;). Thanks for the review.!  
  
FrickinEvilPoptart: It's official. Wootastic is my new favourite word, and Mango is my new name. (Looks around...) Hey, you're right, there's surprisingly little slash in this fandom. It must be... the only fandom ever.... I just did it because it was funny and gave me an excuse to use all of those girly anime and manga clichés that have indeed saturated my brain (some credit does of course go to you!). I think Kevin's dog's name is Karl, and thank you for the disturbing image. Try not to float away on your ego, but if worse comes to worse, I'll bring you back down to ground with my brand spankin new golden spork, in all of its sporky goodness.  
  
Wings of Lead: I have ideas for when Carlie may next give an appearance, but it probably won't be for a while so nobody hold your breath, lest you pass out from lack of oxygen. Hmm, interesting question about the Elementals not fighting, I think Truewind might have come up with a pretty groovy explanation in his fic though. (free plug! Go read Seeds of Mana everyone!) Lots of cool ideas about shapechage, this bears much thought.... Thanks for the review and the ideas!  
  
WaterDragonerS: (Laughs). Glad you liked you it. I try to cater to everyone.  
  
Slash The Ironman: More Hawk/Angela moments will soon be on the way, hopefully. Good luck on your exams! When in doubt, I recommend choosing 'C'.  
  
Just Call me Angels: I have kudos, wootastic! I somehow think Angela is scared away from ever using aphrodisiacs again. Indeed, that was the 'surprise' – sorry I didn't make it for your 18th birthday, but Happy Birthday anyway and have fun making the world end!  
  
Shin-Ryu Warrior: I'm worse at updating than you are at reviewing, so thanks for the review!  
  
Solarious: (nurses stab wound – now I have to type with one hand! The next update will take FOREVER now... ;)) Wondered where you went – I'm happy you're still reading! Hope you like this chapter.  
  
Freeloader1: Not to worry, I did the yaoi thing for the one chapter only. I'm glad you found it funny, as that was rather the point. Thanks for your review!  
  
Bitter Green-tea: (Stares). You read the whole lot.... In one day? You have amazing tolerance. I am in awe of you. I can't read this in one sitting and I wrote the damn thing! You flatter me very much, and I hope that all the subliminal learning messages implanted in this fic compensated for the missed studying ;). Not to worry – I've been leaving this story in the center of the room, so that I trip over it periodically. Thanks for the review, and I hope you keep reading!  
  
Truewind: I did wonder about that... I always appreciate your intellectual viewpoint (as much as it may pain you) on this, and am already planning my revenge on the omnipotent serverzilla for eating your words of wisdom. Thanks for the review, though! Hope you like this chapter.  
  
ThunDaGa: You might be a bit disappointed with this chapter then, but I try.  
  
Terra-sama: Thanks for noticing, I was rather proud of that part. I will attempt to keep living for your sake ;).  
  
Lady Storm: But it's so much fun to make everyone around you think you're a megalomaniac!  
  
Lone Ronin: I felt myself out on a limb, there, yeah, but I'm glad that everyone seemed to more-or-less like it. I can't quite remember the God- beast of Earth battle in detail, but I did my best. Thanks for the review!  
  
Feyenal Dragon: I can't possibly go against so much public opinion, so I won't skip over the God Beast of Wind, lest I face angry hordes of darkness.  
  
Violettegal345: Thanks!  
  
-: Glad you liked it!  
  
Ignorantly Grinning: Heh heh. Thanks.  
  
TheOneAndOnlyT: Ooops, sorry. (Compulsively reaching for spacebar.... Must resist...)  
  
Cookie Pixie: After all that, you DID wind up being the 500th reviewer! CONGRATULATIONS! I feel like I should give you a prize. Ah, you picked out all of my favourite lines again! Thanks as always for your review.  
  
Shirokenkaito: Another new reviewer! (A psychic one at that). Thanks very much! Hope you keep reading.  
  
Enough from me! Thanks to all of the reviewers out there – your reviews really give me the incentive to keep writing. Like I said, I'm not 100% satisfied with this chapter, but I hope you like it anyway.

* * *

Another Witchmaker  
  
Chapter 39 – Into the Valley of the Worthless Gems  
  
By Sinnatious

Angela blinked sleepily, wondering for a moment what had stirred her from her slumber. Her neck hurt like nothing else, but it surely wasn't just that. After a moment, she located the source of what had woken her - a distinctly familiar giggle - causing her eyes to snap open as she shot bolt upright. She glared at the producer of the sound as it came again.  
  
"And what, pray tell, gnat, do you find so damn funny?!" she growled. Normally even the annoying insect knew better than to irritate the Princess within the first ten minutes of waking. Even Duran knew well enough to steer clear. Hawk's only saving grace from the morning violence was likely that he himself was usually also incoherent for the first hour. Which was probably a good thing, because she wasn't known to stick to weaker spells in the early morning.  
  
Wait a minute. Hawk....  
  
Now awake, she felt herself redden inexplicably as she realised the cause for the Fairy's mirth. It was dark now, with the hints of early morning just beginning to show on the horizon. Duran was in the process of a putting out a fire, and Hawk was still sprawled on the ground next to her, fast asleep. She'd fallen asleep while watching over the thief! Goddess, if he ever knew!  
  
"I would have woken you earlier, but the two of you just looked so cute," the Fairy cooed.  
  
"Shut up or I'll stick you in a ball and send you to Carlie as a birthday present!" she threatened, quickly standing and brushing the dirt from her clothes. She eyed her cane speculatively. There was really only one sure way of making sure the Fairy never repeated the scenario to the thief.... if Hawk ever found out she'd done something that usually only the most horribly lovesick cases ever were caught doing, she'd never escape his taunts. Never!  
  
"Erm.... I'll just go visit Duran now," the Fairy announced hastily at the sight of the gleam in the Altenan's eye.  
  
Sighing as her opportunity slipped away, with the tiny deity fluttering swiftly over to her beloved Knight, she noticed Hawk stirring, no doubt in reaction to the ruckus of their exchange. Hastily, the Princess set herself up by the tree, a respectable distance away, and made a show of being preoccupied as the thief sleepily sat up, rubbing his face and looking around, slightly disorientated.  
  
Duran seemed to notice their state of wakefulness, and made his way over to them. "Ah, good, you're both awake. Feeling better Hawk?"  
  
The thief nodded numbly, obviously biting back a yawn. His eyes were still glazed, but Angela was more tempted to attribute that to the early hour rather than any lingering effects of illness.  
  
"Great!" The Knight smiled broadly, clapping the thief on the back. "In that case, I think we'd better be on our way as soon as possible. I don't want to delay finding the God-Beast any longer than necessary. Princess, are you ready to leave as well?" he called over.  
  
Not trusting her voice, she gave him a thumbs up. They finished packing up their makeshift camp, and sooner than expected, were standing at the entrance to Gemstone Valley.  
  
"It doesn't look like much from here," Angela commented.  
  
"I've been here once before," Duran assured her. "It's beautiful during the day."  
  
"Hn," was her only reply.  
  
"Say, travellers, can we be of any help to you this day?"  
  
The Delvar and Knight whirled at the introduction of a new voice. They were certain that they'd be the only people around for miles out here! No one dared wander so far from Forcena after Altena's invasion!  
  
Hawk, of course, didn't seem even slightly startled, but certainly seemed awake enough by now to be curious. "Merchant cats? All the way out here?" His expression was wary as he adopted a loose stance that by now Angela recognized as the one that preceded combat. Seeing this, she and Duran also instinctively tensed, prepared to fight if the need arose.  
  
The two strange cat people seemed to chuckle at their nervousness. The grey-coloured one asked, "Think us from Navarre?! Fear not, tired travellers! The fearsome Thieves' Guild has all but fallen apart! I shall add that you should still take care, for there's still a few bandits, ninja and even a couple of night blades running around, but for instances such as this, we can lend you our services! We have here the very finest weapons and armour that will protect you from such fiends should you ever have the misfortune of encountering any!"  
  
Hawk didn't even seem to pay any attention to the grey merchant's extravagant speech, though he did relax marginally. "There aren't many merchant cats around. I don't suppose you two know Nikita?"  
  
The pair blinked their large eyes at him. This time, the reddish merchant cat replied, in a higher pitched and slightly more feminine voice. "You know Nikita? Ah, of course, that fine tan, you also come from the desert! How tired you must be, traveller, after coming such a long distance! Might I suggest some of these replenishing herbs and curative potions? They are the very best there are to offer, why, even royalty would be pale with envy at the possession of such rare substances!" The merchant cat began to lay down her mat - at least, the Princess assumed that it was a she - and display some of her wares upon it.  
  
The Delvar rolled her eyes at the overdone sales pitch. The poor silly idiots were sitting right in front of royalty, and she was yet to be impressed. It was a well-known fact that most travelling merchants were expert con-artists - even ensconced in the walls of Altena, with most travelling merchants afraid to travel the Sub-Zero Snowfields, were most people aware of their trickery. There was a good chance that those flasks of 'magical curative potion, guaranteed to heal most wounds within seconds!' contained little more than blue-tinged water with a hint of sweetener. There were many a tale of a traveller or solider who had found themselves in mortal peril and had been severely disappointed to discover that their means of salvation was little more than a decorative refreshment. Though 'disappointment' probably wasn't quite strong enough a word to capture the mood in those cases.  
  
The grey cat merchant was also in the process of laying out a mat, removing several weapons and plates of armour from his deceptively large rucksack. She noticed that he was paying particular attention to their current assortment of weapons and armour and choosing the wares he displayed carefully. Definitely expert merchants. She wasn't quite taken by the herbs and potions - besides, even if she was, she still had plenty of magical herb with her that she'd brought from Altena - but some of that armour and some of those weapons were tempting, as impressive-looking as they were. She quickly shook her head to quell it of such notions - there was still the risk that they were fakes, and when fighting a God-Beast, one especially didn't want their weapon to crumple like a dried leaf.  
  
"Ah, Sir Knight! Clearly you are quite a skilled swordsman already, have you ever considered how much better off you would be with a sword that matched your abilities? Or here, I have a shield that can protect you from the sharpest of swords or the fiercest of fires!"  
  
The Princess of Altena tried to cover her snort of laughter. If such a shield really existed, the only place it would likely be found would be in a royal treasury. The Knight, on the other hand, was looking keenly interested. "Is that so? What is it made of? Which blacksmith crafted it?"  
  
Duran was actually taken in by all of this rubbish? Wait, it WAS Duran.... such as thing was possible. What was even more pathetic, was that he had the Fairy in there HELPING him! Were they both equally daft?!  
  
Angela paused at length, when she read back on her thoughts. That had to be at least the second time she'd thought so poorly on the Knight. What was wrong with her? Before, she'd always been aware of his faults, but it had been so easy to forgive them in the light of that handsome face and dazzling smile, especially seeing that the damn Forcenan wasn't even aware of his own attraction. But why, all of a sudden, was she finding herself indifferent when he grinned, or noticing how the frown he sometimes adopted when he was brooding was less than complimentary? Could it be.... that she was becoming immune to his unconscious charm? She been hanging around the Knight for quite some time now. It was only natural, after going through everything that they had, that he would have lost some of his allure.  
  
Of course, that didn't explain why now, when Hawk flashed her a smile, her stomach started to churn. Whenever he said something embarrassing or they were caught in a compromising position, she now found herself flushing. It wasn't terribly unlike being sick, and she was more than happy to attribute Hawk's presence to causing her illness, but surely over time she should have become just as used to that as the Knight's own sense of presence. After all, as annoying as the Navarrian could be, she admitted they were at least comrades by now, if not friends. After all, she even had a nickname! Duran, on the other hand, still hadn't managed to make it past 'Princess'!  
  
Shaking her head to clear it of such traitorous thoughts and not wanting to dwell too deeply on any of her recently confused feelings, Angela forced her attentions back to the matter at hand - which was the two annoying merchant cats, still singing praises for both their customers and their stock in turn. At last, they seemed to finally be concluding their exorbitant sales pitch. Duran was still listening attentively, but Hawk by now was starting to look bored.  
  
"And, say, seeing as you're friends with Nikita, we're even willing to give you a discount, we are! Half price! That's how generous we are!"  
  
"Really?! That's very kind of you. How much then does all of this cost?"  
  
Writing down a series of numbers, the grey merchant cat then handed over the piece of paper to the trio with a flourish.  
  
Angela glanced at the price absentmindedly, before swiftly performing a double-take. She stared at the odd pair of merchants. "At those prices, I'm not convinced that you're not thieves!"  
  
Duran looked keenly disappointed. "I don't think we have enough money for any of this. At least, not if we want to stay at any inns in the near future."  
  
"Even Nikita didn't go around trying to blatantly to rip people off," Hawk muttered. "This is highway robbery."  
  
"Like you're one to talk about highway robbery," the Princess interjected. "Duran, come on, we don't need any of this! Chances are, they're all fakes anyway. We can't waste any time here, there's a God-Beast waiting remember? Let's not be rude!"  
  
"God-Beast?" the reddish merchant cat wondered out loud.  
  
If there was any one sure way to get the Knight moving, it was to remind him of his almightily important mission. Angela was rather surprised the Fairy didn't use this to her advantage more often. "You're right of course, Princess. I'm very sorry, but we won't be making any purchases today. You'd best clear out this area - it's dangerous at the moment."  
  
Adding nothing further, Duran began to stride away. Hawk lingered briefly, calling back to the merchant cats, "If you see Nikita, tell him Bigieu is dead!" before running to catch up with his two companions.  
  
As they headed deeper into the Gemstone Valley, Angela recalled belatedly that they never had found out exactly what the merchant cats were doing all the way out here, so far from the main roads. No matter. They'd just become used to being the only travellers on the road for such a long time, if they thought about it long enough, it was rather surprising that they hadn't encountered more people on the roads outside of the towns. Even the Golden Road to Byzel had been empty of the many travelling merchants in light of the recent political turmoil of many Kingdoms. Or perhaps, Angela thought sarcastically to herself, Bon Voyage's new business venture was now the preferred way of travel to those without giant sea turtles and white dragons.  
  
Gemstone Valley, though, as the sun rose and bathed them in a warm yellow morning light, turned out to be even prettier than she'd first anticipated. While the paths were mostly rocky, beige and light brown rocks, the sides of the cliff faces and the less passable parts of the road were studded with gems of all colours and sizes, poking out of the ground and catching the light and sparkling; some even spreading rainbows onto the path before them. Angela mentally added it to her growing list of potential romantic destinations.  
  
'As if you don't have enough already,' the Fairy commented, at last revealing her presence inside the Princess's head.  
  
'HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THERE?! Do I have to remind you that DURAN is the Mana Knight?! You're meant to be in HIS head, not mine!'  
  
'So I'll go into his head when we see the God-Beast! I can't stay in there ALL the time! I would die of boredom!'  
  
Duran and Hawk looked curiously at the Princess as she struggled to contain a burst of laughter.  
  
'Grand, now they're going to think I'm insane.'  
  
'As if they don't already.'  
  
'I'll overlook that comment.'  
  
'You're in an awfully good mood today. I expected that you would be sulking for weeks about yesterday's little fiasco.'  
  
Angela's irritation swiftly returned. Hawk eyed the Delvar's expression, then the darkening sky speculatively, no doubt wondering if there was a connection to the sudden change in weather. Ignoring the implications of the comment, she mentally responded, 'If you're so bored, why don't you go rest in Hawk's head for a while?!'  
  
"Hey!" Hawk announced, almost as if he sensed his introduction to the mental conversation. He was inspecting some of the gems sticking out from the nearest cliff face. "These gems are completely worthless!"  
  
"When the Gnomes mined the Valley, they didn't want it to lose it allure, so they replaced all of the gemstone they dug up with fakes," Duran promptly reported. "Something to do with not offending Gnome."  
  
"They're pretty good fakes. They wouldn't sell on the black market, but do you think an inn owner might be fooled?" Hawk mused.  
  
'And you needed to ask why I stay out of his head,' the Fairy mumbled.  
  
"You've dropped to pillaging the landscape now?" the Princess asked the thief with a practiced sneer.  
  
"If it's lying around on the ground, it's not pillaging."  
  
"Of course not, it's looting," she muttered. It was probably a good thing the Golden Road was inappropriately named, otherwise Hawk might have tried to carry it off in his pockets.  
  
'And here I was hoping that you two would actually start getting along.'  
  
'Stop it with the insinuations, gnat!'  
  
'Insinuations?' the Fairy cried out defensively. 'But I wasn't insinuating anything! I think that you simply have a guilty conscience!'  
  
'Guilty conscience?! There's absolutely no way I even remotely like that annoying thief! He's nearly as bad as you!'  
  
'I didn't say ANYTHING about you liking Hawk! You're being awfully defensive.' The Fairy was starting to sound coy. Angela was beginning to suspect that the tiny deity only ever held these conversations inside her head in order to avoid the Princess wringing her tiny neck. Goddess knew that if the insect had been sitting on her shoulder she'd have been subjected to a horde of spells by now.  
  
'I'm going to give you one last chance to get out of my head before I follow through on my threat to send you to visit Carlie....' Plucking off her wings and selling them to the Black Market was starting to look like an interesting option, as well. In fact, she was surprised that the thief hadn't tried it himself already. How much would genuine Fairy wings go for on the Black Market?  
  
'Hawk was right, he IS being a bad influence on you.'  
  
'FAIRY! OUT! NOW!'  
  
'Fine, fine, I'll just go visit Hawk then, shall I? I'm sure we'll be able to have a very interesting conversation about you....'  
  
Angela attempted to reign in her sudden wave of panic, forcing herself to reply coolly, 'Fine then, stay. See what I care. Just don't make too much noise.' The LAST thing she needed was the Fairy to go blabbing to the Navarrian and filling his head with all sorts of ridiculous notions.  
  
What REALLY smarted the Princess was the realization that she'd played exactly into the shiny fly's hands. The Fairy had blackmail on her now - even if it was only perceived blackmail. She didn't know what was worse - the knowledge that the Fairy was perfectly willing to use her mind-reading abilities for evil, or the discovery that she actually cared about what the Goddess's so-called emissary might say to Hawk. So much for all of those speeches about honour and morals and decency the Fairy had been trying to feed them for past few weeks.  
  
Needless to say, though, the Fairy didn't bother leaving her head until, after a full day of scouring the steep cliffs and rocky paths of the Valley, they finally found the God-Beast of Earth. Or rather, it found them.  
  
Hence why the Fairy was currently in her head, yelling out, 'LEFT, LEFT! STEP LEFT! No, wait, RIGHT!'  
  
Angela swore as she sidestepped the rain of diamond missiles - her own diamond missiles looking more like sharp pebbles in comparison. Well, she didn't manage to entirely sidestep it, but by now a slight graze wasn't anything to curl up in bed for a week over. 'Shut up, Fairy! I can't concentrate on ANYTHING with you yelling your nonsense all the time!' Stupid gnat didn't leave her head when she had the chance, and now she was stuck with the so-called divine being until they managed to slay this stupid God-Beast! She grew a sudden appreciation for Duran's swordsmanship - how by the Goddess was he was able to both fight and listen to the Fairy's panicked cries at the same time?!  
  
The Knight in question was doggedly holding his ground, slashing uselessly at the midsection of the giant before them. His sword was badly chipped and damaged, and his shield was also badly scratched and dented; all three of them were fearful that soon both his armour and sword would shatter. The only reason they were still alive, the Princess reasoned, was that the God-Beast of Earth was slow enough that any of the blows or spells that did manage to catch them unawares were only glancing blows at best, but even those were more than enough to knock them clean off their feet. Duran spent more of the battle healing them enough so that they could stand than what was spent actually fighting. He'd become so magically exhausted that Angela had been forced to throw him the last of her swiftly depleted supply magical herbs rather than use it to replenish her own diminishing energy. She'd thrown plenty of spells at the God-Beast herself, but anything weaker than the level of her Dark Force spell didn't even seem to dent the tough armour.  
  
Therein lay the problem. The God-Beast of Earth might have been slow enough that they could avoid the worst of its attacks, but the most infuriating thing was that while the God-Beast of Light had been little more than a grotesque pile of yet-unformed flesh, their current foe had not only achieved a recognizable form, but seemed to have had the chance to grow an armour that may as well have been as tough as diamonds. Hence the state of Duran's sword. Angela hadn't even bothered trying to use her cane for anything other than shielding.  
  
"Duran...," Hawk gasped out, clutching his abdomen, having been too busy dodging the diamond missiles to avoid the sweeping arm of the God-Beast. Angela winced in sympathy. There were surely some broken ribs in there. It just wasn't the thief's day. The Knight nodded, stepping as far out of range as possible to call upon Wisp again, Angela laying down cover with a barrage of fireballs. Her magical energy was starting to build up in her fingertips as she grew frustrated with the seemingly endless battle.  
  
Hawk nodded his thanks to the Forcenan as he was enveloped once again in the healing magic, returning once again to chipping slowly away at the impenetrable armour. Or rather, finding ways around it. He'd been throwing arrows of all things at the monstrosity, aiming for the tiny gaps in the armour. The God-Beast consequently had arrows sticking out of it like pins at all of its joints, but the good news for them was that the Ranger's latest barrage seemed to have forced the left arm to stillness. It was a slow process, though, and all of them were battered and running out of energy. Even with multiple cure spells, they staggered from exhaustion.  
  
"Duran! I'm going to use my Star Attack!" Angela called out, for once uncaring about the simplicity of its name. "Take the opening! Hawk, cover him!"  
  
"You got it Angie!"  
  
"I'm ready, Princess!"  
  
'Goddess give me strength,' she prayed silently.  
  
'Oh, NOW she prays for the Goddess's help,' the Fairy muttered.  
  
Ignoring the tiny deity and taking a deep breath, Angela let the last of her magical energy rush to her fingertips. The energy gathered, she let it loose to burst from her cane in a blast of powerful magic that forced her to take a step backwards. The God-Beast shuddered from the blow - she'd made a direct hit. She tried to squint, still half blinded from the glare, to assess the damage she'd done. Was that - a crack in the armour?  
  
Hawk sent a flurry of knives flying at the still-dazed God-Beast, even as Duran launched himself forward with a war cry and plunged his sword through the gap in the armour, burying it up to its hilt.  
  
For a whole blessed second, there was nothing but silence.  
  
Then the God-Beast seemed to shake, and fall apart at the seams.  
  
Duran hastily withdrew his sword, backtracking and trying to ward off the flying shards of debris with his shield as the God-Beast of Earth seemed to disintegrate into pieces of rocks right before their eyes. Angela shielded herself instinctively with her arm, before Hawk dragged her over behind a boulder to take cover. Duran did a similar thing with his shield. The three of them huddled under what little protection they had as the ground shook, then stilled, not daring to raise their heads until the rumbling abated and the dust began to settle.  
  
The almost untouchable God-Beast of Earth was now nothing more than a pile of rocks. Large rocks, admittedly, but rocks none the less. Mist seemed to rise from the rocks; a dark sort of energy that left the Princess feeling unsettled just by looking at it.  
  
The Fairy, apparently finally thinking it safe, emerged from Angela's head to survey the scene. "The God Beast's unstable Mana. It'll dissipate harmlessly. Nothing to worry about." That explained the uneasy feeling, then.  
  
By the Goddess, they'd done it.  
  
It was twilight, now. They'd started fighting the damn thing that afternoon. But now the second God-Beast was dead. Of course, they were all quite worse for wear from it. All of them were covered in scratches and bruises, not to mention all of the dirt and dust. Angela herself didn't think she had a single spell left in her, and she doubted that Duran did either, with all of those Cure spells he had cast. And Hawk looked about ready to collapse where he stood. She'd forgotten for a while that he'd been recovering from a fever just the day before.  
  
That was one thing about the whole mess. At least the battle, as weary as it had left them, had given the Princess an excuse to avoid dwelling on the events of the previous day. She rather hoped Hawk had forgotten as well, seeing as she wasn't quite sure she wanted to see what forms of revenge the thief had in mind for her.  
  
"Good work everyone!" the Fairy proclaimed, applauding them. She frowned when no one bothered responding. "Hey, you just killed your second God- Beast! Show a little excitement!"  
  
"Maybe later, Fairy," Duran consoled her, leaning against his sword as he tried to catch his breath. He looked up at the sky, which was rapidly growing dark. "We probably shouldn't stay in the Valley at night. Even if the God-Beast is gone, there will be plenty of those creatures we encountered on our way here. There's a risk of running into bats and zombies, too. We should get to an inn. The one in Forcena would probably do."  
  
"That's a grand idea," Angela murmured, "But I somehow don't think any of us feel up to fighting our way all the way back up to the Molebear Highlands and then walking all the way to Forcena. Heck, that alone would probably take us right until morning."  
  
"Do you think that Flammie would be willing to pick us up here now that the God-Beast is gone?" Hawk suggested feebly.  
  
The Delvar shrugged. "It's worth a try. You're the one who carts around the damn toy; call her."  
  
Obediently, Hawk pulled out the drum and called for the white dragon. "Let's just hope she's quick," he sighed.  
  
Moments later, all of them could attest to feeling as wave of relief as it appeared their cowardly oversized kitten now considered Gemstone Valley safe enough to grace with her presence. The young dragon landed in a breath of air, braying what could have been a greeting. It appeared - thankfully - that unlike Booskaboo, who was prone to wandering off to do whatever it was giant turtles did in their spare time, Flammie at the very least attempted to stay near, cruising the clouds in the vicinity of the drop-off point. Sometimes, Angela was certain that the white dragon would spy on them from above when it had nothing better to do. It would certainly explain the deep-throated gurgle currently being produced by the beast that sounded a lot like the dragon was laughing at her. Unless the Fairy could share her little mental jokes with dragons as well.  
  
Not wanting to think too deeply about the implications of even a DRAGON making fun of her, the Princess clambered aboard Flammie's back tiredly. Her feet felt about ready to kill her - useless Altenan shoe wear might be fine and dandy in the snow and cities, but it just didn't cut it for the rocky wilderness, and this was AFTER she'd gone to the trouble of getting something of an upgrade. Gemstone Valley was mentally crossed back off her list of potential romantic destinations.  
  
"Brighten up everyone!" the Fairy said cheerfully as Duran and Hawk also pulled themselves aboard. "Look at it like this - there's only five or six God-Beasts left to go now!"  
  
Angela felt pretty certain that had Flammie not chosen that moment to take flight, she would have killed the Fairy right then and there. She was also fairly sure that no one would have even tried to stop her.

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Reviews and constructive criticism is appreciated!


	40. Flammie Gets Big

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.

Author's note: I think these past few weeks have been filled with enough bad luck to make me superstitious – as it is I'm currently trying to remember whether I've recently been breaking any mirrors or walking under any ladders or annoying any almighty deities. I owe a massive apology to all of you for the inexcusable length of time this update took! As it is, I'm still not satisfied with this chapter, but I won't fiddle with it any longer as you've all waited quite long enough. My excuses keep getting better; I crashed my car, which incidentally also had my computer (not to mention myself) in it at the time. Of course, I'm not even smart enough to crash my car anywhere reasonable – I had to crash it fifty kilometres from the middle of nowhere. But that's another story altogether, and much too adventurous for a mere author's note. I'm becoming spooked, really – however will I top this? What will happen before the next update? Will I be evicted? Hospitalised with a terminal illness? Stay tuned to find out.

Response to the Reviewers!:

(smiley face - won't let me use the necessary characters!): This chapter is super-long, to compensate for length of time between updates and last chapter's shortness! Let it not be said that Sinnatious is cheap! (Even if I am)

Thousand Winds: (gnaws on raw macaroni). Thanks! I'll assume by the comparison to Einstein, you mean the hair. (offers eye drops to help).

Wingnut: Whee! Gracias!

Feyenal Dragon: I actually winced when I read your second review, a good three weeks after you posted it. I send out an extra-special sorry card to you. On the upside, it made me feel really good to think that you were that anxious for the next chapter! Thanks for the reviews!

Bitter green-tea: Yes, they are indeed suck... er... I mean HEROES! (Blinks) Why do I suddenly feel as though I've created a monster?

Ian Heath: Welcome! Actually, if you wander around the forums, you'll know that Square currently IS developing a new Seiken Densetsu game. Cool news, huh? I wanted to throw a parade, but for some reason they wouldn't give me a permit. Thanks for your review!

WaterDragonerS: Even if you were late, you still beat me by a mile. Actually, yes, Jinn would have been good against Land Umber in the GAME, but in the fic, having Wind magic as that God-Beast's weakness was a little less practical. I certainly wouldn't advise using Another Witchmaker as a walkthrough! I've been relatively faithful to the chain of events recently, but you'll see I throw it to the wind pretty quickly. As for the class-changing, I've already got a plan for that, but it's at least two chapters in the future.

Cookie Pixie: is hungry like that. Uh, yes. You get a redeemable voucher for... um.... My endless gratitude! I don't know the current exchange rate on gratitude, unfortunately. I suppose I could let you request something in fanfiction or fanart like I did for Wings of Lead, but you would have to wait a while for it! Either way, feel free to ask. Yeah, I kind of feel that I topped myself there, too, and it's only downhill from here on. Ah well, hope you like this chapter!

Freeloader1: And the slippery-slope continues..... my funny bone was all healed until I broke it again when I crashed the car. I'm not sure if it will ever be the same again, now. Hey, you're going to do one of your own fanfics! Great! Let me know when you post it, okay?!

Terra-sama: Ack, she found out my formula! It is rather necessary to remind myself that Duran IS the Mana Knight at times. The Merchant Cats will return, though probably not in such length. Thanks for the review!

Slash The Ironman: Congrats on your good marks! Thanks, I'm having a 'cool' Winter, though it WAS only two weeks long... (damn tropics).

FrickinEvilPoptart: Well, I killed that trend, didn't I? Wootastic! Actually, now that you mention it, I rather imagined Angela to have something of that sort of accent myself. Wow. Lots of cheesy painful love triangle this chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Forever3330: Welcome! Hmm, I'll agree about the evilness of orange. Good luck on beating the game! Don't worry, I think Carlie scares just about everyone by now.

Sorrow in Shadow: Wow, that's high praise, thanks! Reading it that long? I'm amazed you've stuck with it! I'm very much flattered (heads expands unhealthily.)

Lone Ronin: Yup, hear that everyone? Lone Ronin's fault. Eeeeeverything is Lone Ronin's fault. Chapter 38 was just me figuring out that if you use ENOUGH wrongs, you make a right. Two isn't enough. You need at least a dozen. (Roots for the killer chickens.) Thanks for the review, made me laugh! (God Beast of the Moon... King Kong... yeah, I see it too.)

TheOneandOnlyT: Mwa-ha-ha! The 'love confession' scene is going to be most fun I've EVER had. Thanks, and sorry again about the non-soon-ness of this update.

Vinter: Gee, I would have thought the unreasonable waits between chapters would be reason enough. But thanks!

Enough prattle from me! Thanks to all of the reviewers out there, and extra special thanks to those who have the patience to wait out all of my little personal disasters (fires and termites – all over the place!). Again, not happy as I could be with this chapter, but I hope it's enough to please you Dangaard fans out there. It's long, too. Almost two chapter's worth. Enjoy.

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 40 – Flammie Gets Big

By Sinnatious

* * *

The next morning, though it was probably getting closer to afternoon, found the trio of travellers gathered around a table in the Forcenan inn in varying states of tiredness. Hawk had his head on the table; Angela was attempting to resist the urge to poke him to see if he'd fallen back asleep. Duran, in the meantime, was trying valiantly to sharpen his sword, but was disappointed to find that he could do little about most of the damage the armour of the God-Beast had done to it. It was something of a miracle the sword hadn't broken, really. If nothing else, it was a testament to the Knight's level of swordsmanship.

Growing frustrated, he banged the sword down on the table. Hawk was on his feet in an instant, bleary-eyed with his short swords drawn, expecting trouble. "Relax Hawk, it's just me," Duran reassured him hurriedly. Yawning, the Navarrian slumped back into his seat.

"Honestly! Stop lazing around! You have to go find the next God-Beast already!" Angela had been wondering how long it would take for their resident self-appointed conscience to make her next appearance. The floating nuisance fluttered into notice moments after her complaint.

"Shut up, gnat! You get to rest safely inside our Duran's head while the rest of us risk life and limb fighting the God-Beasts, so you can hardly talk! We can spare enough time for lunch!" Angela snapped.

"I was wondering if we shouldn't go see King Richard and inform him of the situation," Duran mused.

"The immediate threat to Forcena is gone, now. We can't spend the time wasting pleasantries with the King. We should head off to Rolante. Now would be good!" the Fairy urged them.

"We're off to Rolante then?" Hawk asked, finally raising his head from the table to join the conversation.

Duran sighed as he stood, sheathing his chipped and scratched sword as he did so. "Yes. If everyone's ready."

Angela choked down the remains of her lunch hurriedly. "I'll leave right now if it gets the Fairy to shut up! Hawk, have you eaten yet?"

The thief nodded sleepily as Duran led them outside, heading through the town of Forcena. It had been a rather covert visit, but on the other hand, the Princess supposed it wouldn't do the populace any good to know that the world could be ending in a month or so if they failed. Widespread panic didn't serve anybody. Though she supposed it would get the Fairy some followers to preach to.

The ride on Flammie to Rolante was swifter than any of them would have liked, and irritatingly enough, the white dragon didn't seem to think that they deserved to be dropped off any higher than halfway up the mountain. It looked like they were going to have to get up to the Wind Mana Stone the old-fashioned way.

"Stupid, cowardly, oversized flying kitten," Angela muttered under her breath as she struggled with her cane against a particularly enraged and strangely coloured Needlebird that seemed to take her mere presence as an affront to its authority, and so had taken the duty upon itself to eject this foreign evil presence from the pile of rocks that it called home. Was it just her imagination, or was the local wildlife particularly vicious today? And she could have sworn she hadn't seen some of these species around here on their last jaunt up the Path to the Heavens - there were griffins and enchanted suits of armour just wandering about as if they belonged, for Goddess's sake! Path to the Heavens indeed! At least Altena was frank about naming its landscape. The Sub-Zero Snowfields were exactly that! In Altena you didn't encounter a Golden Road made of a clay, a Gemstone Valley filled with fake gems, or a Cave of Waterfalls that only had ONE waterfall, albeit a rather impressive one. She felt a brief surge of respect for Navarre. There was another nation which named things exactly as they were. After all, the Desert of Scorching Heat wasn't seasonably mild, nor was the Valley of Flames filled with fake flames.

Still, with the wildlife so thick, it was awfully slow going up the steep slopes of the Path to the Heavens. Angela was getting rather quick with her spell casting and could do it for longer, and even Hawk was getting rather good at pulling out a quick Sleep Flower to aid them, but they really couldn't afford being worn down before they even found the damn God-Beast! Duran was trying to conserve his own magical reserves by only calling on Wisp's magic if they really needed it, but even he was getting fast with the Cure magic with all of the practice he'd been getting.

Sighing as she dispatched the latest Needlebird, Angela checked herself over for any major injuries. Hawk seemed to come out clean from the latest skirmish as well, though that didn't really surprise her. Duran, she noted absently, was a little grazed, but it wasn't anything he'd die from, or even notice.

The Ranger seemed to stiffen, sending them a warning glance. "Something on the path up ahead. Sounds big." Angela heard the scuffle of movement herself a moment later, readying her staff. Honestly, if they had to fight every Needlebird and its chick out here, they wouldn't even make it to the Corridor of the Wind by nightfall!

She jerked, though, when a familiar voice cut through the wind. "Angela? Hawk? Duran? What are you doing here?"

"Riesz?" Duran asked dumbly, blinking in apparent disbelief. The Altenan Princess felt a brief spike of annoyance at the greeting. Riesz was a Princess like her, but SHE got away without a formal title! If anything, Riesz was practically Queen now! But no, Duran still couldn't even call his now long-time comrade 'Angela', but was perfectly chummy with the Princess of Rolante, who he'd probably only met on a total of four occasions.

The blonde carefully picked her way through the carcasses and rocks down to where they stood, looking about herself as she did so. "Dear Goddess, you sure made a mess."

"Not to worry, the cleaning fairies will take care of it," Angela dismissed breezily with a wave of her hand.

Riesz blinked, and stared at her for some time. "Riiight. Okay then." She attempted to move on to other topics of conversation. "What brings you to Rolante? Do you have any news?"

"What makes you think we're coming to see YOU?" the Delvar snorted.

"Of course we're here to see you, oh vision of loveliness!" Hawk interrupted theatrically. "You are but a lone flower blooming on this rock!"

Riesz predictably blushed and spluttered, while Angela rolled her eyes. Clearly the thief had been without for far too long. "Stop that. You sound pathetic."

He turned to her, snatching her hand up in his. "Oh, please don't be jealous, Angie. You're beautiful too."

She snatched her hand away and briefly contemplated which spell would be best to punish the thief for his cheek. At this point in time, she wanted something with maximum pain, but minimum damage. Maybe an Air Blast....

"I'm sorry, Riesz, you startled us. We didn't expect to find you at Rolante. I thought you were going to look for your brother... Elliot was it?"

Angela promptly forgot to cast her spell as she heard this. Honestly! When they'd met for the second time, he couldn't even remember her name after two days, but he could recall the name of Riesz's brother when they hadn't seen the other Princess for how long?!

Eyes shining brightly, the Valkyrie responded enthusiastically, "He was returned to us just a week ago! As soon as Eliza sent me word, I headed straight back here. Jagan, that horrible weird man who kidnapped him, apparently just vanished - Elliot's back safe and sound now."

"Ah," Hawk piped up, "About that. Bigieu and Jagan are dead now, and the Navarre Thieves Guild seems to have completely fallen apart after all of the losses. You needn't worry yourself about them anymore."

Regarding him with wide eyes, the Amazoness Princess leant forward unexpectedly and gave the Ranger a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you so much! It gives me such great relief to hear that my father and countrywomen have been properly avenged!"

"Um, it wasn't actually me who did it," Hawk said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand before getting a wicked gleam in his eye. "Of course, if you want to congratulate me more, you're quite welcome-"

"AIR BLAST!"

"Ack!"

"That should shut him up for at least a while," Angela muttered as the Navarrian picked himself off the ground, dusting his clothes off. She really didn't want to examine too closely why she felt so angry at the moment. Sure, she had plenty of reasons, like Duran's insistent ignorance of her many attempts to seduce him, the Fairy's incessant lecturing and life-threatening quest to accompany it, not to mention Koren's continued freedom AND possession of quite possibly THE most powerful weapon in existence, but she'd been fine with all of that before now. Business as usual. She supposed Hawk's annoying behaviour was the last straw, but really, she'd grown used to THAT and almost looked forward to it as an excuse to let off some steam. She usually ALWAYS felt better after blowing up or at least attempting to harm Hawk. Why, now, was she nagged with guilt, rather than still being riled up over the fact that Duran was paying more attention to RIESZ, a tomboy of a Princess if she ever saw one?!

Now, though, was not the time to be having internal arguments about her feelings. Especially not as it appeared she'd acquired an audience at some point. 'Is there a problem, Angela?' the Fairy asked sweetly. Where did an emissary of the Goddess learn sarcasm anyway?

'Nothing! And it's none of your business! I'm just confused!' she spat out at her mental invader.

'Maybe you're going mental,' the tiny deity suggested.

'Maybe. It would probably be all due to a recent annoying voice that has a habit of turning up in MY head instead of Duran's.'

The conversation on the outside continued regardless of the Angela's and the Fairy's mental bickering. "So Riesz," Duran asked curiously, "You never DID explain what you were doing on the mountain path. You must have a reason - one doesn't just venture out on roads this packed with wildlife alone."

Blowing a blonde strand of hair from her face, Riesz admitted, "I know. I was investigating some rumours of a new strange beast that had been sighted on the mountain. It's been hard, though - just a couple of weeks ago, the wildlife around here started to just go out of control! I have the army doing extra patrols just to keep the castle safe, so I can't spare any personnel to keep the roads clear."

"Strange new beast?" Angela inquired, growing worried.

Duran, as usual lacking tact and diplomacy, blurted out, "You don't think it's the God-Beast, do you?!"

"Duran!" Hawk hissed as Riesz's eyes widened to a rather unattractive size.

"God-Beast?! There's a GOD-BEAST near Rolante?! Since when were the God-Beasts loose anyway? How did it break out of the Wind Mana Stone?!" the Valkyrie panicked.

"Don't you worry your pretty head there, Riesz," Hawk soothed, eliciting another eye-roll from the Altenan Princess. ""We're here to take care of it. We've already dispatched the God-Beasts that broke out of the Light and Earth Mana Stones."

"There are MORE?!"

"Good going, Hawk," the Delvar muttered as the blonde began wringing her hands around the handle of her lance. "Are you trying to create a panic? Planning a looting spree, maybe?"

"Do you know what this means?! When the God-Beasts awaken, it can mean the destruction of the world!" Riesz seemed to be teetering between hysteria and anger.

"If only you were this excitable, Angie, I could have so much more fun," the thief mumbled.

The Princess glared at him, hissing, "Now is not the time to be getting your kicks by scaring people! Especially when there IS something to be scared of!"

"What are you talking about? I wasn't at all scared by the last God-Beast battle, not at all!" he huffed melodramatically, Angela taking a moment to try and decide whether or not he was trying to sound like he was lying, or was just incredibly bad at it.

"Leave the machismo stuff to Duran," she advised him haughtily, "It really doesn't suit you at all."

"Ah, so I see our beloved Princess goes for a more sensitive kind of guy? I can handle that. Honestly, I was ready to throw myself off a cliff last battle to save the God-Beast the trouble. My life flashed before my eyes, but all I could think about was that I would never get to say goodbye to you!"

"You're lousy at that, too," she mumbled.

Duran coughed, finally getting their attention as Riesz turned back to them, recomposed and with a fierce glint of determination in her eyes. "Very well. We cannot let the situation stand as it is. I offer to accompany you to destroy this God-Beast."

The proposition surprised all of them - they've never even really considered that anyone ELSE would want to go killing the God-Beasts, probably because any sane person wouldn't. Not to mention the Fairy had been spending countless weeks brainwashing them into thinking that they were the only people who COULD do it and instilling the correct amount of duty into them. It had clearly taken next to no effort with Duran, but this was the first inkling she'd had that it might have been working on her, too. The thought was a disturbing one.

'She's going to mess things up,' the Fairy muttered, as if sensing Angela's thought pattern. 'It'd be dangerous for her to come.'

'She can take my place, and you can hang out in HER head instead!' the Princess offered.

'And give up my advantage of blackmail? Besides, she hasn't even been to the Holyland! On the other hand, at least SHE prays to the Goddess!'

'And yet who out of the two of us got to go to the Holyland?'

'Coincidence favoured you! Along with the Goddess and the Elementals, for some bizarre reason. If I had MY choice...'

Ignoring her, the Altenan girl continued, 'And look at Hawk! I doubt he's even SEEN a Mana Goddess statue to pray to in his life, and if he did, he'd probably just try to steal it! He got to go to the Holyland and meet the Goddess too! Pretty poor standards you have for picking the Goddess's champions.'

'I didn't have a lot of choice at the time! Besides, the only one I REALLY need is Duran!'

'Oh yes, I forgot - we're spares! Never mind that we have the blessings of all of the Elementals! And let's not forget that Duran would be dead by now if it wasn't for my magic and Hawk's speed, and you'd be dead with him!' It felt rather good to rant at the Fairy, actually, even if she had argued these points before. It was also positively delightful to feel the Fairy's growing embarrassment and discomfort as she spouted irrefutable truths one after the other. No wonder the Fairy liked lecturing them so much. The tiny deity just enjoyed causing them discomfort!

"Angie? Hello in there?" Hawk asked, bringing her back out of her mental conversation. Sending one last equivalent of a mental glare to their currently invisible tag-a-long, she returned her attention once again to the outside world.

"What do you think? Should we bring Riesz along?" Duran asked worriedly, no doubt lost because the Fairy was in her head badgering her instead of inside the Knight's, counselling HIM as she should be. Still, it was uplifting to think he still valued her opinion a little more than Riesz's, if nothing else.

At the question, Angela considered the Amazoness before her, noticing Hawk doing the same out of the corner of her eye, though she doubted it was for the same reasons she was doing so. There was no question that Riesz, being the General of Rolante's formidable army, was a powerful warrior. The question, though, was whether or not she had the mettle to fight a God-Beast. Had she been with them earlier, the Delvar probably would have traded places with her in an instant, but as it stood, Riesz had never fought a God-Beast before, and thus was lacking what may become life-saving experience. Furthermore, how would that mess up the dynamics of the team they'd developed thus far? Angela had to admit, begrudgingly so, that with the hordes of battles herself, Hawk and Duran had been through in the past week alone, their teamwork and reaction times were becoming something she'd only ever dreamed about. An extra pair of skilled hands in battle would be useful, but if the Valkyrie wasn't up to scratch, they'd just be tripping over her.

Her train of thought was cut off, though, as the Fairy, heaving a great mental sigh, finally extricated herself from Angela's head, shimmering into existence before them. "Riesz, we would welcome your help, but I believe you should maybe think of your Kingdom first. Without the Goddess's blessing, your chances of surviving a battle with the wild Mana of a God-Beast are slim indeed."

Angela abruptly recalled the cloud of malevolent Mana energy she'd seen dissipate after they'd defeated the God-Beast of the Earth. Was that stuff was dangerous? It made her feel uneasy and maybe even a little sick, but could it actually kill someone? Didn't the Fairy say it was harmless? Or harmless only to them? Was there really some strange force of Mana protecting them from death? When one thought about how they'd survived their fall in the Cave of Waterfalls with little more than a few bruises to show for it, as well as their trips by cannon travel and their stint in the ocean near Bucca Island, not to mention Hawk's apparent immortality, it was rather hard to dispute the notion that just maybe there really WAS some powerful Mana energy looking after them. Some of those instances would have had to practically occur directly by the Goddess's hand, for goodness sake! After all, Wisp might be able to heal injuries, but could the Elemental of Light stop them from drowning?

Riesz pursed her lips as though to say something, looking thoroughly displeased. The Delvar couldn't blame her - after all, if it was Altena in the vicinity of the God-Beast, she'd probably want to go along 'just to make sure' too. Then again, Altena still WAS in the vicinity of a God-Beast. There was an uplifting thought. "But surely..." she began.

"Since when was there a rule that only three of us had to go on this crazy quest of yours, Fairy?" Angela snapped irritably. While she wasn't so blind to her own feelings to know that she didn't really want Riesz to come with them, she wasn't stupid enough to pass up any help that was offered. Against the God-Beasts one needed all the help they could get.

"It's not a rule, it's....," the Fairy mimicked the Valkyrie's early gesture, wringing her hands as she flitted about in frustration. "I can't possibly pass along the Goddess's protection to a fourth person! Especially when they haven't received the blessing of all eight Elementals!"

"Why don't we just bring the Elementals out here and now, then?" Angela asked, more to annoy the Fairy than from any great urge to bring Riesz along.

"It doesn't work like that!" she almost shouted in response, her glow brightening to match her anger. "Elementals don't just give their power to ANYONE..... you have to do something pretty spectacular to prove yourself..... or be especially compatible! It's complicated Mana theory! If you ever actually listened when I talked to you, I wouldn't have to explain it now!"

"That's a fancy way of saying she doesn't actually know," Hawk stage-whispered.

"So what else is new?" the Delvar snorted.

"Carlie know! Carlie know all about Mana theory! Carlie make good high priestess one day!"

"That's nice, Carlie," Angela muttered absently. She abruptly did a double-take. "CARLIE? WHAT?"

They hadn't seen, or even really thought of, the terrifying tyke in pink since they'd left her with the elves in Dior; or at least they assumed they'd left her with the elves. She seemed to have left in quite a huff, actually. It wasn't like they really had any time the past week or two to contemplate what had happened to the girl and Angela had grown complacent in the little stalker's absence. Now, though, the many memories they had shared with the so-called fifteen-year-old came rushing back. With vengeance, at that.

"Hello Carlie, what are you doing here?" Duran asked, bending down to pat the young girl on the head, though his smile did look a little forced.

"Carlie is happy to see Friend Duran!" the young girl shrieked in delight, clamping Duran's leg in a tight hug.

"I probably should have mentioned that the one who found Elliot was Carlie," Riesz muttered dejectedly.

"Scary Lady right! Carlie go boom-boom through all desert to find Heath! Heathie not in desert, but Carlie find Elliot! Elliot nice! He give Carlie candy." The supposed fifteen-year-old held out her hand reverently to show them.

"Smart brother there, Riesz. Get the tyke hyped up on sugar. Good one," Angela murmured.

"Carlie come find Scary Lady - Carlie want to go find Heath now! Scary Lady come, help Carlie!" the young girl demanded.

Ah, so the child had ulterior motives after all. The Princess always knew that the High-Priest's granddaughter was a slimy sneak at heart. Returning Riesz's long-lost brother to Rolante put the Princess in a position where Carlie could ask any favour and the Valkyrie couldn't say no. Even if she really, really, wanted to. Angela paled at the thought of what other lengths of blackmail Carlie may stoop to. She was only grateful that she didn't have any dependants that she had to look out for. She wouldn't have been able to handle being indebted to Carlie, of all people.

The brat was STILL looking for Heath, though? "Do you think he's still alive?" Angela wondered out loud.

Hawk shrugged, twirling a blade through his fingers. "We can safely say he wasn't mixed up with Navarre's lot. If he's been taken by Koren, his chances aren't terribly good at the moment. If he was with Deathjester and hasn't made an appearance by now, he's probably already dead."

"Uh, guys..." Duran cautioned them, seeing tears gather in the big blue eyes of the half-elf.

"NOT TRUE! HEATH NOT DEAD! PERVERT MAN AND SLUTTY GIRL PAY FOR SAYING SUCH MEAN THINGS ABOUT HEATHIE!" She screeched, gathering up her ball and chain and swinging it threateningly in the air.

"They didn't say Heath was dead, Carlie," Riesz assured the girl frantically, shooting death glares at the pervert man and slutty girl in question. "Just that he's probably in danger. The Priest of Light is a strong man, isn't he, Carlie? I'm sure that he'll be able to take care of himself until you get there."

The potential whirlwind of destruction calmed..... a little. "Scary Lady think so?"

Eyebrow twitching at the continued referral of 'Scary Lady', though Angela still thought it far better than HER nickname, the Valkyrie forced a smile and replied, "Of course. Why, you never know, he could already be back in Wendel!" Clever Riesz. What a way to get the tyke out of her hair.

Or not. "Really?! Carlie wanna go right now! Scary Lady come!"

The smile became even more strained. "I'd love to Carlie, but there's a God-Beast near Rolante that we have to take of first." If it was still there. They'd spent so much time standing on the Path to the Heavens discussing it that the damn God-Beast had probably already flown off and was destroying the world as they spoke.

The young girl gasped. "God-Beast! Grandpa told Carlie 'bout God-Beasts! God-Beasts bad! Carlie come help, Carlie whack God-Beast good!"

The situation only continued to deteriorate. Angela threw up her hands in the air in exasperation. "Who next? Is Nikita going to want to come? King Richard? Why not Bon Voyage and his entire family while we're at it?"

How much time had they wasted standing here discussing the God-Beast, anyway? They probably could have found the damn beast and slain it by now. Not to mention, it was getting dark, and none of them fancied fighting a God-Beast in the middle of the night. Especially not on the unsure terrain of the Path to the Heavens. Wouldn't that be a laugh! Survive an encounter with the God-Beast, only to slip and fall to their deaths!

"Erm," Duran hedged, seeming to search for some diplomatic means out of this situation. Taking Riesz along for some extra firepower wasn't a terribly bad idea, even if the Fairy thought it a pointless risk, but they just couldn't be sure, when push came to shove, whether they'd be safer siding with the God-Beast or Carlie. He decided apparently to temporarily avoid the issue by addressing the Valkyrie first. "Riesz, we would very much like your help... but I think it would be better for your Kingdom if you sat this one out. There's no point in taking risks."

The blonde's eyes blazed defiantly. "Yet Angela, the Princess of Altena, stands here with you! What about the threat her death poses to HER Kingdom?!"

The Knight seemed to subconsciously know he had erred, fumbling his reply. "Well... that is... The Queen of Reason still lives, but you're all that Rolante has!" Angela rolled her eyes, knowing already that the other Princess would simply counter that saving the world was above even the continued well-being of her own Kingdom. She briefly wondered whether she should feel affronted that Duran appeared to be trying to protect Riesz while placing herself in danger, or pleased that he trusted her combat skills more than the Amazoness's.

Obviously seeing the situation wasn't going to resolve itself with the simple Forcenan at the helm, Hawk finally intervened. "Riesz, as much as we would all adore to have such a beautiful rose on our team, it simply stands that there's a chance that we may fail, and we would all feel better knowing that you were still around to fight the God-Beasts in our place. After all, if you came with us and perished in battle as well, who would be left to rally against the God-Beasts that remain? I personally can't think of a better person suited for the job."

Sly, Angela grudgingly admitted as she observed Riesz's string of reactions to the Navarrian's impromptu speech. He'd essentially called her their backup plan, but had complimented her until she had forgotten about it. It seemed to work, though, as the Princess considered it carefully before nodding. "Okay. You're right. I'd still like to come, but yours is the wisest course of action." The Fairy seemed to glow at this, almost as if it had been HER who had come up with the solution to best smooth the ruffled feathers. She beamed at Hawk, who just rolled his eyes.

"Carlie come!" The young morningstar-wielding girl insisted, apparently having paid absolutely no attention to the conversation at all. "Carlie help! Carlie help GOOD!"

"We still haven't figured out what we are going to do about... HER." It wasn't safe to speak of Carlie by name while she was present. Angela was almost superstitious enough by now to not mention her name while she WASN'T present, just in case.

"I could poison her," Hawk suggested.

"Not an altogether bad idea," the Fairy muttered.

"Fairy! I've always imagined that you, of ALL people, would be against such things!" Angela mocked.

"But... it's CARLIE!"

"What about Carlie?" the pink-clad child asked, growing confused.

"Poison it is then," Hawk continued conversationally, searching through his pockets.

"Hawk, stop that!" Duran admonished.

"Carlie COME!" The demands were getting rather close to violent. It was probably a good time to start making their escape.

"Oh, is that the God-Beast I see?" The thief was pointing up into the sky, one hand shielding his eyes from the sun.

"WHAT?! The damn thing has taken flight already?!"

"Probably during all that time we wasted standing here arguing," the Fairy muttered under breath.

Riesz had gone pale, gripping her lance, while Duran started shouting orders. "After it! Hawk, call Flammie - we'll follow on her!"

"You really think Flammie will go anywhere NEAR a God-Beast?" Hawk asked incredulously, before shrugging and beginning to search his numerous hidden pockets for the required drum.

"CARLIE COME!"

"Not now, Carlie, there's not enough room on Flammie for that many of us," Angela lied as they ran towards the nearest outcropping, the Fairy abruptly vanishing into the correct head for once. Twenty minutes ago, she hadn't been quite so keen to face the God-Beast, but when she weighed up the options.... It was safer with the God-Beast. Hawk and Duran seemed to feel the same way; only bothering to give the briefest of farewells to the stunned Valkyrie as the three left the Rolante Princess behind to handle the inevitable temper tantrum by herself. She had a little brother, right? She should be used to such things.

This time it was a running jump onto Flammie's back as they attempted to prepare themselves for battle, with the black speck in the sky quickly growing closer at the behest of the white dragon's powerful wings. It looked as though the God-Beast - what had Jinn called it, Dangaard? - was about the same size of Flammie, and fortunately it appeared their dragon's fear of the God-Beasts only extended to when they were on the ground; after all, it was rather hard to imagine the agile dragon being afraid of anything in this domain. At the Knight's urgings, it wasn't long at all until they were flying alongside a two headed winged monstrosity that vaguely resembled some of the griffins that had wandered the Path to the Heavens.

Now came the issue of how to fight a God-Beast in the sky. The wind was already whipping past them ferociously as Dangaard shrieked and wove through the air, obviously trying to lose them, but Flammie matching the monster move for move, which in turn caused the three of them to latch on tighter to the dragon than usual. Well, except for Hawk. The thief was clearly crazy enough to stand up and slash at the creature whenever they got close enough.

"Hawk, you idiot, get down!" Angela yelled, her words being whisked away by the wind as the Navarrian grazed the God-Beast once again. Duran was valiantly trying to reach the creature with his sword, despite the obvious futility of his efforts.

Flammie veered away again as the God-Beast screeched and proceed to blast them with a powerful burst of air. The Delvar's heart clenched for a moment as Hawk's arms wind milled, before he regained his footing and dropped into a crouch, firing off arrows at their target as he did so. At least the God-Beast of the Wind didn't have the impenetrable armour of their previous challenge, so Hawk's attacks were actually causing damage, even if it wasn't a lot of it. It was a bit much to hope that the thief would be able to bring down the God-Beast like that, though.

Still clinging to the back of their white dragon, Angela finally brought herself to raise her cane, calling forth Gnome's power. "Diamond Missile!"

The spars of gemstone rained down upon the God-Beast - it dodged two, but the third scraped its flank, which only ended up enraging it. It began to weave and dive, trying to bomb dive them and nearly crashing into Flammie more than once, causing the dragon to let out a frightened bray.

"The Fairy says Flammie's becoming anxious! She's not going to hang around much longer if this keeps up! Hurry and kill it!" Duran yelled, his words being whisked past them by the wind.

"Easier said than done!" the Princess grumbled. Hawk sat back on his haunches after his latest attack. Probably the only reason the so-called 'Father' of the Winged Ones had stuck around this long was that Dangaard was still rather clumsy in the air itself.

"We can't fight like this! I'm going to try something!" the thief yelled, lurching to his feet once again and assuming what looked like a spell casting position.

"WAIT! What are you going to do?!" Angela panicked.

"I'm going to Body Change Flammie!"

"WHAT?! WHILE WE'RE ON HER?! Are you INSANE?!"

"I've been practicing!"

When?! She'd certainly never seen him practice more than once or twice since that incident he'd turned her into a rabite. Dear Goddess, he was going to turn the only thing supporting them a hundred metres in the air into a rabite! She was too young and too beautiful to die yet!

It was too late. Angela hurriedly clamped her hands over her eyes as she saw the tell-tale yellow smoke pour forth around them. Any second now....

"Angie! Angie, are you okay?"

Someone was shaking her shoulder. Opening her eyes, she was relieved to see white fur beneath her. Had the Goddess taken pity on them by making Hawk's spell fail? She lifted her head, surprised to see even more white fur. Lots of it, in fact. Turning her head to the side, she blinked repeatedly. The dragon's aqua-tipped wings had always been large, but had the feathers always been bigger than her?

Dear Goddess, Hawk had really done it. He'd used Luna's magic to make Flammie huge!

Was that even supposed to be POSSIBLE?! All she'd ever seen the Body Change spell do was turn the target into a lullabud or a rabite, minus that one time Hawk had used it on a silktail and managed to turn it into a Robin Hood, which had created havoc for the next twenty minutes. This was something else entirely!

Duran seemed to take it in his stride, through, using the newfound room and comparative stability to pull himself to his feet and take a swipe at a rather confused Dangaard as it swooped past. The God-Beast didn't seem deterred by Flammie's new size, much more intent on picking on her passengers, but fortunately the new ratio calmed their ride enough to cease the temptation of dropping them in the ocean and taking off into safety.

"Alright, now we can fight properly!" Angela announced, jumping to her feet and brandishing her Ancient Staff. She wasn't going to directly begrudge the thief a compliment if she could help it. Especially not when they had a rather aggressive God-Beast to deal with. "DARK FORCE!"

Dangaard shrieked in pain as the spell closed in, immediately launching another swooping attack on the trio, tearing a painful gash along the Delvar's right arm as it did so, Hawk and Duran managing to duck in time. Angela winced at the sight of the blood dripping down her forearm, but was relieved a moment later when the Knight took a moment to heal her with some cure magic. Almost as soon as the wound closed up, she resumed throwing spells at the God-Beast again. After all, the reach of Duran's sword wasn't quite long enough to even touch their nemesis unless it came up close, and she was fairly certain that Hawk would be running out of arrows and throwing daggers fairly soon at the rate he was going. Where did he get them all from, anyway? He must have secreted an entire quiver in there somewhere!

"Fire Ball! Ice Smash! Holy Ball!" she yelled, calling out the spells frantically one after another. Her magical endurance had grown rather high with all of the recent practice, but her reserves were going to dry up fairly quickly at this rate. She leapt to the side this time when the God-Beast made its next pass, Duran taking the full brunt of the monstrosity's claws instead, though his armour held up fairly well against. A quick mutter of a healing spell and he was back on his feet, sword trailing along the Beast's side as it swept past him, creating a shallow cut. Then it was out of range again, and the attacking fell back to the Princess and the thief.

This pattern continued uninterrupted for what seemed like an eternity; Angela and Hawk would attack Dangaard with whatever long range attacks they could muster, Dangaard would get angry, Dangaard would lash out, swooping in with its two heads trying to spear them with their beaks and scratch at them with its claws while Duran tried to take opportunity of its close quarters to slash at it with his sword. The God-Beast of the Wind would then retreat a small distance away again to observe them warily and try to throw wind magic in their direction while Duran used the opportunity to heal anyone injured in the rush while his two companions resumed their attacks and then the cycle began again.

Or at least, it continued this way, until Angela called forth another Diamond Missile, but felt the spell die on her fingertips. What?!

She tried again. "Dimond Missile!" Nothing but the faintest flicker of her magical energy. She was exhausted - she must have cast thirty spells by now, and it certainly didn't help with how thin the air was up here. If she wanted to keep fighting, she was going to have to use some of their precious magical herbs. She only hoped she had enough for both herself and Duran. Using the brief lull in the battle to search for her stash, she paled as she remembered using the last of them on Duran in their battle against the God-Beast of Earth. She'd never had the chance to restock! She would be almost defenseless!

Just before she began to panic, Hawk came to her salvation. "Angie! Catch!" He threw a familiar-looking satchel of herbs at her, which she snatched and stared at in bewilderment. Where....?

"A little, er, 'present' I got from Riesz and Carlie," he explained as she hurriedly swallowed the foul herbs, feeling her magic surge back to life a moment later. Too bad if Riesz and Carlie needed magic on the way home, she guessed.

"Angela, Hawk, watch out!" Duran yelled in warning. The God-Beast of the Wind had used the break in attacks to launch itself head-on at them. Angela shrieked and threw herself to the ground, almost losing her cane in the process. Hawk leapt to the side to avoid the deadly claws as well, but he wasn't quick enough to dodge the sweeping arc of the right wing. He made no sound other than an outlet of breath as the force knocked him cleanly from his feet, and a moment later, the thief disappeared out of sight underneath the white dragon's flapping wings.

"HAWK!" Angela yelled, hand outstretched. Not wasting a moment, she changed her focus of attention. "Flammie!"

The now giant flying kitten was obviously at least two steps ahead of her as she folded her wings and broke into a sudden dive, forcing the two remaining occupants to hunker down low against her back and cling to the white fur as if their lives depended on it, which incidentally, it did. Dangaard followed a moment later; the God-Beast grew distracted when they shot past the free-falling thief, though, choosing instead to attack him while they angled to get under the plummeting form. Angela held her breath in trepidation as Hawk seemed to twist his body mid-air, grabbing the claws intended to gouge him and instead using the God-Beast as a temporary ride. It shrieked, trying to shake him free, and the Princess let out a gasp when it finally managed to dislodge his grasp.

Of course, by this time, Flammie had things under control. Neither Hawk nor Angela had much time to react before he plowed into her, and two of them thumped down on the soft fur of Flammie's back.

"Why, Angie, this must be fate!" he wheezed.

She glared at him, figuring that if he could flirt, he was okay. "Get off, you pervert! You were the one who fell on ME!"

"I'm sure Flammie meant nothing by it," he responded innocently, pushing himself up, running a hand over his ribs and then wincing.

"We need some cure magic over here for the idiot who keeps throwing himself to his death, Duran!" she yelled, then wheeled back to the thief. "The Ghost Ship wasn't enough for you?! Now you have to leap from flying dragons too?!"

"It was hardly intentional, Angie, but it's nice to know you care."

"Shut it! STAR ATTACK!" She yelled, pouring her energy into a powerful bout of magic and directing it at the aerial pest. To her surprise, the blast made a clean shot, cleaving straight through the left head of the God-Beast, and completely obliterating it.

Even Duran looked intimidated for a minute. He and Hawk exchanged a glance. "She sure is scary when she's angry."

After the last blow, the remaining head of the God-Beast apparently decided that it had endured enough as it ceased its assault and veered away.

"Oh no you don't," Angela growled. "Flammie! After it!"

Surprisingly, the dragon acquiesced, easily matching the Dangaard's speed as it tried to escape, moving to make a pass of her own. Duran made a first slash, a second slash, and on his third he finally managed to drive his sword deep into the breast of the God-Beast. The remaining head of the creature squawked in agony, and the body gave a sudden lurch, stunning all of them when Duran's sword suddenly snapped, leaving half of the blade embedded in the chest of the God-Beast as it whirled away, tumbling awkwardly through the air. The Forcenan looked stricken at the sight of what was left of his cherished blade. It seemed that the damage the sword had sustained during their onslaught against the impenetrable armour of the God-Beast of Earth had at last caught up with it.

Fortunately, it didn't seem as though it mattered immediately, as Flammie had clearly had enough of the battle, and swooped, catching the disorientated and badly wounded God-Beast.... in her mouth?! She promptly began shaking it like a dog would a rabite. Even as they clung on during the violent shaking, all of them were a little disturbed by the sudden change in attitude of their usually placid dragon.

"You'd better change Flammie back straight away after this!" Angela ordered Hawk, as she noticed the God-Beast's form finally go limp; the white dragon released it and soared back up into the sky as it plummeted towards the ground, eventually falling beneath the clouds and out of their sight. The trail of dark mist was all the confirmation they needed that their task was finally done.

Relieved that the battle was finally over, the trio collapsed tiredly on the white dragon's back, relaxing at the sudden silence which was broken only by the whistle of the wind past their ears and the rhythmic flapping of Flammie's wings.

"Where are we, anyway?" Angela finally asked as she gathered her breath back. There had been a few too many close calls in that fight for comfort.

Hawk peered over Flammie's head. "I think we're above the ocean somewhere near Navarre."

"Should we head back and tell Riesz that the God-Beast is taken care of?" Duran asked. The Fairy still hadn't made an appearance, but that wasn't unusual when aboard Flammie. It would be best to cherish this time while they could.

"But.... Carlie is there," Angela pointed out.

A brief silence filled with contemplation followed. Finally, the appointed Mana Hero took it upon himself to make the decision. "I guess... we'll rest up in Palo, and we can find someone there to send word," he compromised reluctantly, leaning over to give the giant dragon her new directions. It quickly grew dark as they headed back towards Palo. At least this way, they wouldn't have dragon-lag. Just plain old exhaustion, instead.

"We'd better hurry. I don't know how long Flammie's Body Change will hold up," Hawk advised.

"WHAT?! You mean it could have been undone at anytime?!" The thief wasn't just stupid and reckless - he was suicidal. There could be no other explanation.

That noted, they were all relieved when they finally set down on the beach outside of Palo - even more so when they realised the streets of the small coastal town would be mostly deserted at this time of night. By now, all of them were thoroughly coated in blood; some their own, and some from the God-Beast. Angela regarded her own dress in disdain, thankful that she didn't have to worry so much about it staining as the blood blended in quite well with her garment anyway. It was at times like this she wouldn't have minded the cleaning fairies servicing their clothes as well. Anyone who saw them and didn't know about Wisp's healing powers would be amazed they were even alive under all of this grime, she thought distastefully. They could have been mistaken for zombies! She certainly hoped that the next God-Beast's claws weren't so sharp. In fact, she rather hoped that it didn't have claws at all.

They tiredly made their way towards the local inn, thankful that the innkeeper didn't do anything more than point them to the back rooms and lay out a meal for them - after checking that they could pay, of course. None of them - except probably Hawk - really knew if they even had enough money left, but at this point even Duran would be willing to skip out on the bill.

They settled down to eat for what felt like the first time in days. The Fairy, not being able to stand the silence that had settled any longer, finally emerged from Duran's head.

"Cheer up! You guys did great today! You've defeated THREE God-Beasts already!"

"Easy for you to be cheerful," Angela commented, spearing her food with her fork angrily.

"Well, you didn't think fighting the God-Beasts would be EASY, did you?" the Fairy asked, flitting around each of them and checking them over, as if they might have overlooked an injury without her almighty guidance.

"Of course not!" she retorted irritably. "But it's not just the God-Beasts, the local monsters and wildlife.... it's much more fierce than it used to be. More than once we've nearly been wiped out even before we reach the God-Beast! We're not invincible, you know, Fairy. We're tired," she finished quietly.

There was a long silence at that. The mood up until now had been light while they were consumed simply with the overwhelming need to keep moving, without ever having the time to be able to process everything that had been happening. Now, however, the gravity of the last few battles was settling over them like a wet blanket. The travelling trio of warriors, even the unflappable Duran, were becoming overcome with a sense of impending doom.

To begin with, they had assumed the task had seemed so daunting simply because they hadn't even started. Nevertheless, all of them had assumed that after they had defeated the first few God-Beasts the task would begin to at least LOOK a little more manageable. None of them had expected that with each God-Beast they defeated, it would look more and more like they were attempting the impossible.

Even the Fairy seemed to sense that her input would not be welcome, and for once respected that, though she didn't cease her annoying fluttering. For quite some time, the only sound that permeated the silence was the clink of silverware and the chewing of food.

At last, Hawk spoke, announcing their secret concern for all to hear.

"The God-Beasts are getting stronger..... and we are not."

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Whew, that was long! Reviews and constructive criticism is appreciated! Hopefully next update won't take forever. As if any of you believe me anymore. :)


	41. Negotiations with a Wall

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.

Author's note: Against all odds nothing bizarre has happened in the past two weeks that ridiculously delayed this chapter. Is my bad luck finally at its end? Either way – no real God-Beast action this chapter, I decided to try and move the plot along and have some more character interaction. Thanks as usual to everyone who reviewed last chapter, and I hope you like this one.

Response to the Reviewers!:

Lady Storm: Duran HAS become less dumb, hasn't he? I'd best be doing something about that.... Thanks for the review!

Shin-Ryu Warrior: Thanks! I really don't know what else I can say to that.

TenshiNoAkuma: Cat food? For cat food, I can be bribed to forget even my own name. I can just see my neighbour's reactions at having a white dragon as a doormat, though you are right, Flammie would serve more as one of those door sausages – the ones that keep the drafts from coming in underneath. And salesmen, too, for that matter. LOL, thanks for your review!

Freeloader1: Jeez, I think Spring/Autumn (depending on location) must be car crash season then. Next God-Beast – Ice! Thanks for your review!

(Smiley face): (Repeatedly curses 's new formatting) Unfortunately, I can't make every single chapter pure comedy, though I certainly try at times. The boss fights – especially this next one – will be getting more serious as well. Thanks very much for your comments; they were rather good.

Violettegal345: Short and sweet. Thanks!

Bitter Green-Tea: Seems everything I write makes people tired. I hope it's sympathy for the character rather than boredom! ;) Thanks, I do believe your good-luck wishes have made a difference.

FrickinEvilPoptart: Groovy idea – I can unfortunately envision such a tag team only too clearly. (Thanks for the nightmares ;)) And funky out of date lingo never dies! Long live the lingo! (And the baby platypi – here's a question; if the plural of platypus is platypi, is the plural of hippopotamus, hippopotami?)

Cookie Pixie: ANOTHER one! That's three reviewers! Wow, the bad 'car'ma (ba doom boom kssh – yeah, sorry about that one) must be just flying around. I guess the humour in here HAS reached third class, and possibly even fourth class levels. Class change will either be at the end of next chapter, or the start of the following for those who are anxious. Decided what you're going to use your voucher on yet? Thanks for the review.

Wings of Lead: Indeed, sorry about the length of time between updates. Hmm, a useful Fairy? I guess it COULD happen. Heh heh, you seem to have the deft skill of picking up all of the really important details. Thanks for such a well thought out review!

TheOneandOnlyT: This chapter isn't so much Angela/Hawk as it is Angela/Duran (or lack thereof). Wow, I'm hoping that you're just flattering me, otherwise I don't know what's happening to the fine upstanding humour section of LOL, got it, I will attempt to improve updating.

Lone Ronin: I thought Carlie already WAS chibi! I'll have to pop back around to forums then, to take a peek. That'll be awesome. Thanks for the review!

Okay, that's more than enough from me, on with the chapter!

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 41 – Negotiations with a Wall

By Sinnatious

* * *

"Angie..."

"Umph. Go 'way, Hawk," she muttered, rolling over onto her side.

"Angela! GET UP THIS INSTANT!"

"What?! Mother? Where-?" The Delvar sat up in bed so fast she almost blacked out again as all the blood rushed from her head. She repeatedly blinked her eyes in order to try and clear away that bright spot in the centre of her vision, beginning to panic when it didn't disappear. Several more moments of disorientation later the panic was replaced with disappointment as the Fairy came into focus.

"Dreaming about me, Angie?" Hawk asked sleepily, his words half slurred together.

"Fire Ball," Angela muttered reflexively, still not entirely awake, hence missing her target altogether.

"ANGELA! The curtains are on fire! Put it out right away!" The Fairy shrieked. She was vaguely aware of Duran running into the room at the commotion, then beginning to frantically search for water as the flames grew higher.

"Picky, picky," she murmured, and managed to drag herself up enough to grab her cane, thus better directing her magic. "Ice Smash!"

It came out more as water than ice, but that was what she had been trying for, anyway. Of course, she hadn't really bothered to take into account just how much her power had been growing recently - especially given that she had spent far more time trying to create as much destruction as possible, rather than only spitting out little bits of magic. Therefore, mere moments later, not only was the fire out, but their room partially flooded.

Hawk was rubbing his eyes, only slightly more awake after their impromptu cold shower. "I think we're going to have to try and skip out on this bill after all."

"Honestly! The sun rose ages ago! I can't believe how heavily you two sleep!" the Fairy admonished. Angela opened her mouth to retort, but was surprised when for once Duran stood up for all of them. Clearly the Knight was more awake than they, but upon examination, he too had bags under his eyes, and even his armour was looking a little dull; obviously only given a quick clean as opposed to the usual vigorous buffing.

"We're all tired, Fairy - give them a break. I can't defeat the God-Beasts without their help," Duran interjected in the midst of valiantly attempting to mop up some of the mess from the Princess's sleep.

"Most of the spells nearly always eventually disappear, so why don't you just wait and maybe the water will too?" Hawk suggested in the middle of a yawn.

"Good idea," the Knight agreed, even if his posture seemed to indicate that he doubted it. There was no point attempting a task that was futile either way. "Though I think we may still have to sneak out later. I was too tired to think about paying last night."

"See, Fairy, I'm not the only one Hawk's a bad influence on," Angela sniped as she gathered her things and ran a hand through her hair. "Where are we going today?"

"God Beast of Ice - what was it called again?" Duran asked, wrinkling his forehead in concentration.

"Fiegmund," Hawk's voice floated back from underneath the bed, coming up with a couple of damp gold pieces. "Ah, I can always trust that rich travellers will lose some change."

So it was the God Beast residing her own homeland then. At least after that, Altena would be out of harm's way, and maybe next time she returned she could get a hero's welcome, instead of having to blast the gates down and contend with death threats. Which was fun in its own right, but did get rather tiring after a while.

The topic of the night before was left well alone as they prepared themselves the day - Angela thoroughly scrubbed her dress clean of the accumulated grime and blood. Servant's work, in her opinion, but it wasn't like there was anyone else around to do it. She relaxed in a hot bath while it dried. Her hair had been a fright when she'd glanced at it in the inn's mirror, making her wonder how even Hawk, as desperate as he was, managed to bring himself to keep up his usual flirting. Then again, she really couldn't hold him accountable for anything said before midday, and certainly not before breakfast.

When she at last emerged, it was at least mid-morning, and she was feeling marginally better; until she nearly ran straight into the Fairy, anyway.

"Where's Duran?" she asked, holding her hand out threateningly, just in case the irritating gnat got the bright idea to invade her mind again.

"He went out to find someone to pass along a message to Riesz. He'll be back in a minute," she reported promptly, though continued to stare at the Delvar unnervingly.

Flinging a towel onto the bed, she snarled, "What?! Do I have something on my face?" Moments after the words left her mouth, she began to wonder if she really had somehow missed something in the mirror. She thought she had been thorough, but looking at the average state of her hair these days, she'd really let herself go. No wonder Duran hardly ever turned an eye her way!

"No," was the reply, but the Fairy continued to stare intensely at her anyway.

By now self-conscious and almost certain the annoying parasite was trying to read her mind again, Angela practically pounced on Hawk when he too returned from his bath, cleaned and refreshed. "Hawk! She's creeping me out!"

"She creeps all of us out, Angie, I would think that you'd be used to it," he replied, then his grin stretched as he wrapped an arm around her, "But don't you worry! I'll protect you from the nefarious glowing pixie!"

Rolling her eyes, she pushed him away. "Stop trying to get a feel, you pervert!"

"I don't NEED to get a feel, Angie. That dress doesn't leave much to the imagination."

Hawk's life, and possibly the structural integrity of the inn, was saved once again by Duran, who chose that precise moment to enter the room again, bringing brunch. "Duran! How did it go?" The Fairy was still staring at her thoughtfully, which could only mean trouble, so it was best to stay occupied. She was starting to entertain the notion of converting her Ancient Cane into a Fairy-swatter. 'Fairy Swatter'. Why hadn't she come across any canes named that yet? It seemed far more interesting than 'Oak Cane', or 'Ruby Staff'. Perhaps the weapon smiths would benefit from a few conferences with the people who named the Golden Road, Gemstone Valley and Path to the Heavens.

"I managed to find a messenger who was willing to brave the journey to Rolante Castle, so we can leave as soon as we're done here. We do have a small problem, though," the Knight stated as they sat down to eat.

"What's that?" Hawk asked as he piled the food onto his plate, then liberally helped himself to several tidbits from Angela's. The Princess glared at him and snatched it back.

"If you recall, I lost most of my sword last battle," the Knight said solemnly, holding up the hilt and shattered blade as a reminder. "This is enough to use against anything we encounter on the road, but if this is all I have against a God-Beast, I'm dead." It was obvious the Forcenan was trying to be professional about it, but from the look on his face it was clear that the loss of his sword affected him greatly.

"I suppose we're going to have to find some way to get you a new one, then," Angela sighed. They certainly couldn't take on a God-Beast without every single one of them being appropriately armed. "First things first; how are we going to pay for it?"

Following a brief moment of contemplation, the two males turned to look at her. Not even wanting to entertain the memory of her last money-earning experience, she hurriedly defended herself. "Don't look at me! I either lost or sold off the last of my jewellery all the way back in Astoria, thank you!" It had probably been destroyed in the Beastmen's attack, too. What a waste. And to think she'd spent all of that money on a cane that hadn't even stood against a door! Lousy good-for-nothing merchants.....

There was a long silence as they all reluctantly turned their heads towards Hawk. He smirked, unmistakably basking in his moment of triumph. "In that case, leave it to me."

"I can't believe this, first they're planning on skipping out on innkeepers, and now they're going to start stealing swords?" The Fairy was beginning to look exasperated by her lack of control over the moral code of her chosen champions.

"Whoever said that it was the SWORD we were going to steal?" the Navarrian asked innocently, returning whole-heartedly to his meal.

Angela blinked, looking down at her own food. She could have sworn her plate had more bread on it a moment ago. Shrugging, she served herself some more of the less savoury soup, not noticing Hawk enjoying an unusual amount of the coveted baked goods.

"The next matter, then," she reasoned, "Is where we're going to get it. Are there any good weapon smiths in Palo?"

The Knight shook his head. "I already checked when I went out earlier. They have a weapons' smith, but they've been sold out - a good portion of their wares were seized by the Navarre Thieve's Guild during the invasion, and whatever wasn't was donated to the retake effort."

"Hmmm." Turning back to her meal, the Princess was puzzled to see her bread sitting there once again. Maybe she really was going insane. "That's not good."

"I could have sworn I had some bread," she heard Duran mutter to himself not a moment later, "Anyway, as I was saying, there's no swords to be found around here. Even if we went up to Rolante, I think they'd mostly only have spears on hand anyway, so we'll have to go somewhere else. On Flammie, it shouldn't take too long."

"We have to go to Altena anyway, why not try there?" she asked. "Elrand had a decent weapon's smith too, I think. And if we can't find anything, we'll just have to spend the extra time and make a trip to Forcena."

"They'd probably be out of stock, too, after repelling Altena's invasion," Hawk advised as he swallowed the last of his meal.

"Even if they were, I'm sure King Richard would find a way to get Duran a sword. But it shouldn't have to come to that," she brusquely informed him. This was really rather annoying. Though glancing at her own Ancient Cane, it was understandable that the Knight's sword was broken. Her own staff had become rather weathered, and she was fervently hoping that it too, would last the next battle. Her mother would no doubt want to sacrifice her all over again if she ever saw what her daughter had done to such an expensive royal treasure.

"Well I suppose that's that taken care of," Hawk said, rubbing his hands together. "I'll be out shopping while you two finish lunch, then."

"Wait! I'm coming along just to make sure you don't go attacking defenceless old ladies!" With a scowl, she vanished into Hawk's head, who twitched sporadically at whatever her greeting was, before slipping through the door and disappearing into the marketplace outside.

At the thief's sudden absence, a long silence stretched between the Delvar and Knight. Here it was, Angela suddenly realised. The Fairy and Hawk, both absent, leaving her and Duran all by themselves. In peace. With no interruptions, no explosions; not even the Fairy's annoying innuendos inside her head.

She'd dreamed of this moment for weeks.

"Um....," she began, chewing on the bottom of her lip nervously. At long last, this was her moment! She couldn't screw it up - this was possibly the last chance she'd ever get to start something with the Forcenan! How to begin....

Duran coughed, then took a sip of his drink. The silence stretched.

"So... I bet you miss your Aunt and little sister, huh?" she blurted, for lack of a better topic, and immediately winced at the stormy expression on the Knight's face.

"I swore that I wouldn't return home until I had defeated Koren in combat." Right. Touchy subject. At least it had reminded her of something they DID have in common.

"So, what crimes did Koren commit against you to begin with? I never did get the full story," she asked. Nothing united people more than a common enemy.

"He snuck into Forcena while I was on guard one night. He killed all of the other night guard, and put me into hospital for some time. I swore then that I would hunt him down and kill him for the shame he'd bestowed on Forcena's Knights."

"Ah." Another pause. "Doesn't surprise me, Koren would be difficult to fight one-on-one. You had some close friends on the night guard?"

The stoic Forcenan frowned. "Not particularly. There weren't many of us on duty that night, and I only really knew them by name and face. Most of the other Knights are a far bit older than me."

"I see...." Well, that topic was killed, then shaken around and spat out for good measure. Talk of killing Koren clearly wasn't the key to getting the conversation fired up.

After they had both finished eating, the silence grew uncomfortable again. This time, to her delight, Duran initiated the conversation. "Could I see your cane, Princess?"

Her cane? Shrugging, she handed it over to him. He appeared to examine it, then returned it to her. "It looks to be a fine weapon, but I don't really know anything about canes. I've never learnt how to use one."

Did he think he was conversing with one his army buddies? "Well, I've never learnt how to use a sword, either. It's a matter of preference."

"I suppose. Did you learn under anyone in particular?"

"The same instructors as the rest of the army, really. I mostly dealt with Jose, though."

"I haven't heard of him," Duran admitted.

"Well, he taught MAGIC, not swordplay," she explained.

"Ah. I suppose that would make sense. I thought maybe the royal family of Altena might have seen some famous warriors pass through its halls," he said apologetically.

"I'm sure they did, but I never noticed," she dismissed with a shrug. Another pregnant pause followed her admission. Dear Goddess, the most she could talk about with Duran was killing Koren and who had given her weapons training?

Duran looked as though he wanted to talk about the various famous warriors he had no doubt met training in Forcena, she figured, recalling his surprisingly long-winded lectures he'd given them about all sorts of war heroes when they'd first visited his hometown, but it really didn't interest her much. History, especially war history, wasn't something she focused on in such detail - she learnt the important things; the general times and dates, who won, and the major events that triggered or ended wars, as well as the odd legend or two. She knew far more than any average commoner, of course, but why read up on the details of ancient history when she had advisors on hand who knew the dry material already? Thus for the most part it was a waste of her time, not to mention painfully boring.

There had to be SOMETHING else that they could talk about, though, right? Surely, in all of the time they'd been travelling, they had done more than simply make plans about whatever their next move was going to be. Maybe Duran was short of stimulant without the Fairy's running commentary in his head? Did they really have so little in common that they couldn't talk without the annoying gnat or Hawk there to add to it?

She just knew that there had to be something other than swords, their mission, Koren and dead war heroes to talk about with the Knight. There simply had to be! Was it her nerves getting to her, or was there really nothing else they had in common?! He was a Knight, and she was a Princess! There had to be SOMETHING!

The silence just stretched on.

"Nice weather today," Duran commented mildly, looking out the window.

"Let's just hope it's this nice in Altena," she agreed blandly.

Another silence.

Angela felt she was on the verge of hyperventilation as she frantically searched her mind for anything of remote interest, dismissing the thoughts one after another. Duran would hardly be interested in any sort of intellectual discussion, but as a Princess, she didn't really have any more common interests, short of travelling to various inns and getting drunk with handsome men. While she didn't really have anything to talk about with most of the men she encountered in those fraternizes either, she admitted, the application of alcohol did make the entire process much more enjoyable.

She opened her mouth to make another attempt at instigating some sort of communication, but was interrupted by the door being thrown open by Hawk, swaggering in with a scowl on his face. "I did NOT steal money from a little girl! The money belonged to her rich parents!" He paused, then continued, "It's completely different! You don't know what-" Cutting himself off, the Navarrian looked at his two shell-shocked companions before breaking out into a grin. "I'm back! Duran, will you PLEASE take the Fairy back into your head?! She won't shut up - she even nearly got us caught!"

Materializing in front of them, the miniature deity stuck her tiny tongue out at the thief. "It serves you right! I'm surprised you didn't try and rob a homeless person of their lunch!"

Hawk muttered something about a significant lack of homeless people in Palo under his breath before turning his attention back to Duran and Angela, holding up a small bag as he did so. "This should cover the sword! And, if I'm not mistaken, we should have plenty extra for any other... mishaps."

Duran's eyes goggled at the sight of all the money - no doubt it was considerably more than the Knight had been privy to seeing all at once for quite some time. Had the Navarrian robbed the town blind? In such a short time, too. Riesz would be livid if she ever found out what had occurred right under her nose. "Uh... good work! I think."

Angela only smiled wanly, however, as her private conversation with the Forcenan officially ended and a depressing realisation settled over her. She'd battled with the notion since the battle with the God-Beast of Earth, but now, in the face of all of the evidence, she could no longer deny it. She didn't love Duran. She wasn't so sure if she had a crush, or even a passing fancy for him anymore. In fact, she was becoming rather certain that if the Knight by some miracle had a sudden change of heart and asked her on a date, she'd even be inclined to say no.

On the upside, her to-do list had shortened once again to just killing Koren, the God-Beasts, and possibly Carlie.

"In that case, we shouldn't dally in taking on the next God-Beast," Duran announced; even with the loss of his sword obviously bothering him, he wasn't one that appeared to be easily swayed from such missions of great import, even if they were as suicidal as this one was.

"We should probably still sneak out," Hawk advised, casting a significant glance to the back room where they had slept. A puddle could be seen creeping out from under the door. "It shouldn't be too hard - the innkeeper wasn't anywhere in sight when I left or came back in. He might be surprised when his discovers what has happened to his...."

The Delvar held up a hand, her thought process interrupted and set aside for further examination later. "Silence! I'd rather not know the details of exactly what crimes you've committed! That way, no one can list me as an accomplice."

"Well, no one could possibly list the Goddess's own messenger as an accomplice! I'll go make sure the path is clear!" the small deity announced.

"Fairy! Honestly! What's happened to you?" Angela gasped in only half mock shock; she expected their tag-along to protest vehemently every step of the way, as she usually did whenever Hawk employed his 'trade'.

"I think we've been a bad influence on more than Duran, Angie," the thief in question quipped.

"That's what the annoying gnat gets for hanging out in the wrong heads all the time!"

"How exactly does one skip out on the bill at an inn anyway?" Duran wondered out loud.

"It's clear!" The small voice floated back to them from the inn's foyer.

"Come on, Duran, we'll show you!" Hawk announced. "Just follow me!" At that, the thief walked confidently out into the foyer. Angela followed, with Duran clumsily bringing up the rear. Their path seemed to be clear. This thievery business wasn't so hard after all. What kind of stupid innkeeper took people in on their word and didn't guard the front desk?

The Knight seemed to be inspecting something behind the counter. "I think the innkeeper is asleep. Doesn't look very comfortable. Strange."

Hawk was trying to look innocent - and failing - as Angela hurriedly dragged the Knight out of the exit and onto the street, sending a glare at the Fairy in warning, lest she dare speak up.

"I can't believe you," she hissed at the Navarrian once they were safely out of range of the inn.

The thief shrugged, pointing out, "It IS your fault that we had to skip out on the bill. If you hadn't half destroyed the room, we could have remained upstanding moral citizens and paid for our stay like everyone else."

"You've never been an upstanding moral citizen!"

"I concur," the Fairy announced, suddenly appearing behind them.

"Stay out of this!" the Princess snapped.

"Hawk, could you call Flammie?" Duran asked plaintively, apparently exercising another one of his rare moments of wisdom in avoiding getting into the argument.

"Already done," he replied with a gleaming grin as the white dragon barrelled down from the sky - thankfully back to her normal overgrown kitten size, rather than the terrifying behemoth that she had transformed the day before. That would have made quite a sight for any Rolante Amazonesses on watch.

All the same, remembering the dragon's final brutal attack against Dangaard, Flammie didn't look quite AS cute anymore. It was a rather similar manner in how they had become immune to Carlie's cuteness, really. Angela even found herself patting her fur awkwardly, muttering, "Nice dragon," under her breath.

"To Altena, Flammie!" Duran ordered proudly once astride the dragon. With a quick bray, she took off at her usual breakneck speed and soared into the clear blue sky.

Hawk apparently had learnt nothing from his fall only a day previous, as he was only holding on using his legs while trying to wrap a scarf around his neck. "You idiot! Get down!" Angela yelled over the roaring wind. They were in a rush to get to the next God-Beast, true, but would it positively kill the white dragon to slow down a little? She knew the beast could do it. "You'll fall to your death!"

"Better that than to freeze in Altena!" he yelled back cheekily as he dragged a warmer garment over his head that looked different to the one he had worn in Snowfields previously. Apparently money wasn't the only thing he had pilfered on his tour of Palo.

The Princess was able to relax when at last he hunkered down low against the dragon's back again, although.... "Don't you even think about looking up my dress," she warned. The words were again whipped away by the wind, but the innocent face the thief put on an instant later made her suspect that he had heard all the same. Really, when on the back of a flying dragon, her usual clothing was entirely too impractical. There were sacrifices that had to be made when one was as beautiful as she was, the Delvar reasoned, but she was ready to start drawing the line.

Besides, it wasn't like she was going to be impressing the Knight anytime soon, she thought to herself morosely, sincerely glad that the Fairy hadn't been spying in her head for the past day. Though the tiny gnat had yet to use any of her accumulated blackmail, being thrown out the Kingdom by your own mother didn't inspire a trusting sort of personality in a person, even if said mother was under some sort of spell at the time. Hanging around a thief for the past several weeks hadn't helped repair her shattered faith in humanity, either.

All too soon the ocean gave way to the glistening white landscape of her homeland. Flammie started to wheel towards the city, but Hawk, recklessly leaning out to look down below, suddenly announced, "Hey, those two merchant cats are down there!"

Angela found herself spluttering in disblief. "WHAT?!" Maybe Bon Voyage WAS making a living off his stupid invention after all - no doubt using that enormously expensive gunpowder they'd acquired, no less! "Are they mad?! I thought the Molebear Highlands was bad, but NOBODY walks the Sub-Zero Snowfields unless they HAVE to!"

"Flammie, we're stopping here!" Duran ordered; the white dragon gave a disgruntled bray at the sudden change in destination before acquiescing to the demand.

As the white dragon dropped them off, the two merchant cats seemed to be eagerly setting up shop - no doubt the wolves in the Snowfields were lacking in gold, which probably made the trio the first customers the merchants had in days. Furthermore, they seemed disturbingly accepting of the fact that they had just flown out of nowhere on the back of a white dragon.

"Good Sir Knight, it is an honour to meet you again!" the grey merchant began, hurriedly displaying his wares upon a hastily laid blanket as his counterpart rushed to organise herself. "Might I interest you in some fine weapons and armour? I guarantee that you won't find finer anywhere else! Even folks on the Black Market would be green with envy!"

"Dear Goddess," Angela complained, putting a hand to her head. She could feel a headache coming on, and it was barely midday. "You two shouldn't be out here! You'll freeze to death! And if the cold doesn't kill you, the wolves or the God-Beast will!"

"There's those God-Beasts again..." the pink merchant muttered beneath her breath.

"We'd be willing to give you a lift to Altena," Duran kindly offered, while the Princess attempted not to groan. Nearby, Hawk was feigning interest in some of herbs on display. The males around her were typically useless in these types of situations. It figured that the Knight would decide that there was plenty of time for a kind gesture in the middle of saving the world, and that the Ranger would do nothing to even try and back her up. "I'm sure that Flammie could carry all of us, and if she couldn't, we could get Hawk to resize her again."

"Are you crazy?!" Angela seethed. "You do realize that only sheer dumb luck kept us alive last time! There's no telling when a Body Change spell could wear off! And I would rather not frighten the entire populace of Altena if I can help it! I am Princess, you know!"

"I'd almost forgotten," Hawk commented off-handedly.

The merchant, on the other hand, didn't even blink an eye. "Thank you, kind sir, but we will be quite alright. While you are here, though, perhaps you might be interested in some quality swords? I mean no offence, but yours appears to be in a sorry state."

Duran was difficult to distract - normally he was only capable of focusing on one task at a time, she had noticed - but swords seemed to the exception to this. "What do you have?"

Growing elated, the merchant began to enthusiastically display all of his wares. Angela didn't bother poking the Knight in the side until he began to take particular interest in one admittedly impressive-looking blade. "Duran! These are travelling merchants! It's probably a fake!"

She succeeded in doing nothing other than offending the merchant, however. "A fake! My dear madam, we are proud merchants! We would never sell an inferior product, much less a fake!"

"He's telling the truth, Princess," the Knight agreed, hefting the sword into one hand. "I would certainly know if this were a fake. What is it made from?"

A gleam arising in his cat-like eyes, the travelling salesman whispered conspiratorially, "That, good sir, is mythril."

"Mythril! No way!" Angela gasped. A mythril sword wasn't something someone could buy on the roadside; it was the kind of thing that was stored in the treasury vaults of royal family! As far as she knew the metal was rare even in Forcena, where the original mines once resided. He had to be lying!

If he wasn't lying, though, she wasn't so sure she wanted to know exactly where two travelling merchant cats had acquired a mythril sword. She was even less certain she wanted to know the price.

There was always the possibility they could just steal it, she supposed, catching the speculative glint in Hawk's eyes as he sidled up next to them. All three of them had started skipping out on inns, now - surely mugging travelling merchants was only one or two steps worse. It would still be a long way to being as bad as Hawk.

In the end, instead of offering the travellers a safer means to Altena or Elrand, they wound up selecting a fairly wide range of goods in addition to the sword. This included a sizeable selection of ridiculously priced quick-cure potions and herbs, as well as any upgrades in amulets or armour that were available. The previous battle with the God-Beast of Wind still rang clearly in their minds. The only reason they had been able to afford any of the wares at all was because the Delvar had threatened them with a Fireball the size of the sun.

"You make quite the haggler, Angie," Hawk commented approvingly.

At that, they bade the merchants farewell and made their way towards the Labyrinth of Ice Walls where the Mana Stone of Ice once resided. They no longer needed to make any additional excursions before tracking down the God-Beast, but they were almost certainly destitute once again, even with all of the money Hawk had 'liberated' in Palo. They'd probably never get to leave an inn legally ever again.

On the upside, the Mana Knight was now equipped in a manner worthy of... well, of the Mana Knight.

It was a blessedly short walk to the entrance to the Ice Caverns from where Flammie had dropped them off, thankfully, though Hawk still spent most of the time complaining vocally. The interior of the Caverns didn't seem much warmer, but at least they were shielded from the blistering wind. They entered, then began to follow what seemed like the most reasonable path to their target.

The idea was relatively simple, to begin with. Enter the Labyrinth, find the God-Beast of Ice, kill it, and move on to their next suicidal mission, hopefully with all of their limbs still attached. Many hours later, though, it appeared that they hadn't taken Undine's rather unusual sense of humour into account.

"WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?!" Angela yelled in frustration, stamping her foot and feeling like she was ready to pull her hair. In fact, she might have, if the idea of a bald Princess weren't so abhorrent.

"The Fairy says... that Undine says...." Duran was frowning, concentrating on relaying the Fairy's obviously complicated message from the inside of his head. "She doesn't know," he finally concluded.

"How could she not know? These are HER caverns!"

"Fiegmund must have used its own magic to change the setup of the Labyrinth," Duran reported, though he was starting to look as though he was getting a headache from maintaining two conversations at once. "It could be anywhere..... Salamando saying...." The Knight suddenly blushed. "Never mind."

Aghast, the Delvar spun in dismay, taking in the many choices of passageways before them. "This is going to take forever! It's like a maze in here!" It stood to reason that it wouldn't be called a labyrinth for no reason, but they had heavily relied on the thought that with the Elemental that had created it on their side, navigating it would be a fairly simple task. Instead, they'd wandered around for hours without even a hint of the God-Beast! It was almost certainly dark outside by now, but fortunately the ice walls seemed to be imbued with a magic of their own that rendered them slightly luminous, giving them enough light to see easily by.

Hawk seemed to be inspecting a piece of the wall nearby fairly closely. "We've already been here."

"What?! How do you know?!"

"This ice is slightly newer than the rest," he explained, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. For one long moment, the Knight and Delvar stared at him as though he was some sort of genius - at a glance, they couldn't tell how by the Goddess the thief had figured that out. Did he have powers that he had not unveiled until now?

Of course, the Navarrian soon destroyed the illusion by completing his sentence. "....And I made a marking on the wall over there."

Shoulders sagging, the Princess chose to ignore the second statement, focusing instead on the first and its obvious implications. "Are you daft?! Why didn't you mention this earlier?! New ice means that Fiegmund must have created it! And how can you tell, anyway?"

He only shrugged. "It's a slightly different colour and has more air bubbles. It wasn't the only new ice I saw, so I didn't bother saying anything. It's not like knowing makes a difference."

"Doesn't make a difference?! I'll show you how it makes a difference! FIRE BALL!"

The steam cleared to reveal that the ice wall was no more. Angela smirked triumphantly as she almost danced through the opening. "I'm not going to walk for an hour to go five paces! This is much quicker. Hurry up!"

Duran and Hawk exchanged a glance. "You first," the Navarrian suggested.

The Knight swallowed and stepped through the opening into the next cavern. Admittedly, the God-Beast they sought wasn't present, but at least it looked different to the other caverns they had entered thus far.

Quickly taking in the new cavern with a determined air, and deeming it free of any vicious fauna, Angela quickly turned once again to the startled thief. "Hawk! Where's the new ice?" She didn't understand how he did it, but the thief's eyes had acquired a reputation for their sharpness and keenness for detail; she still remembered how he picked out Duran's footprints when they had left Jad.

Reliably, the amber eyes flitted about the room quickly before coming to rest on a wall far to their right. "There." Striding over, the Delvar repeated the spell. Damned if she was going to even bother doing this the traditional way!

The next cavern they repeated the process, and the next as well. It took six more Fire Balls before they entered a curiously shaped cavern that seemed to be arranged in layers of ice shelfs.

Entering cautiously, Angela felt a shiver run down her spin as their footsteps echoed eerily in the frosty cave. It was easily the largest of the alcoves they'd entered yet, and was curiously empty of any sign of the other creatures that often slept inside the shielding walls of the Labyrinth.

It didn't stay empty for long, though. The Princess felt fear snake through her heart when a low, guttural growl, accompanied by the sound of something large skittering across the ice, reached her ears. The trio unconsciously moved closer together, standing back to back in a defensive position.

Mere moments later, the ominous calm was brutally shattered. Dropping from the ceiling with a crash that shook the ground and sent them scrambling for balance, the God-Beast of Ice made its own Dramatic Entrance.

Great. This one had claws too.

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Please review. Those who consider reviewing against their religion are welcome to leave E-Mails or offerings of food. If those are also against your religion, please tell me about it, because it sounds like one darn interesting religion.


	42. Frosty, with Claws

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter has violence, and pretty much absolutely nothing else. Really. The entire chapter is one big fight scene.

Author's note: I guess the bad luck with updating decided to get me back for my comments last chapter. No apologies can possibly make up for a delay this huge, so I'll just thank you for being patient enough to keep reading and wish you a Merry Christmas! (of DOOM!) Bow down before the power of Santa!

Response to the Reviewers! (Kind of long this time, so if you don't want to read it, feel free to skip ahead to pretty line):

Mirowood: New reviewer! Hello! Thanks, and good luck with your own fic. Be sure to give me a heads up when you post it. We need more SD3 fics.

Ren: ANOTHER new reviewer? (Is flabbergasted). Thanks a bunch!

Nightmares Hell Queen: Well, I haven't updated for so long, so let's call it even. Besides, strawberry cake makes everything surfer: Wow, I hadn't seen you for a while, either. Thanks. Not to worry, if I ever finish Another Witchmaker, I'm planning on doing a Hawk/Riesz piece to make it up to all you poor Hawk/Riesz fans out there.

LunaRyuu: Hey, thanks. Think of it this way – at least you haven't had to suffer through the huge waits for updates like half of everyone else has!

Wingnut: Yeah, I should probably stop obsessing over sleep every single chapter. I just can't help it. Every time they fight a God-Beast, I start thinking 'Wow, they must be SO tired by now!' And did you say something about the longevity of weapons? (Grins).

Slash, the Ironman: I have to agree with you – Fiegmund is one of my favourites, which is probably why the ENTIRE CHAPTER is dedicated to that battle, and nothing else. And you say I'm enjoying Summer? How can I enjoy THIS Summer? It's like, 42 degrees! (Think about 120 for you Farenheit folk). I can only work on the computer at night for fear of it overheating! Hey, THERE'S a good excuse for chapter lateness if I ever saw one.

Truewind: No need to apologise – that makes two of us. Hope you can get back into the swing of things soon. And as always, thanks for your consistent and more often intellectual reviews. I always appreciate hearing from any of the other SD3 writers.

j0: OooooooOOOOOoooh.

FrickinEvilPoptart: I'm always trying to make your brain explode. It's a pastime of mine. The cat hair is probably from the turkey that was dancing in your tapioca. Those turkeys, always eating those cats….. what-what indeed.

Freeloader1: Thanks! (Is lost for words.) Yeah, thanks!

Shin-Ryu Warrior: If you thought there was ice last chapter….

Just Call Me Angels: I will refrain from making religious comments. Tends to get me ranting. I decided to throw everyone a loop on that this chapter, but it had a big, big purpose which will be revealed in like, ten chapters. So stay tuned. I'm interested (and maybe a little worried) to see which observant people string all of my poorly-hidden hints together. Considering your most recent observation, I think I'll have to be watching you most carefully of all.

Cookie Pixie: Maybe Mana magic only works against forces from the Underworld, and is incapable of harming innocents? Or maybe using it against innocents taints it, and you become like Koren and Deathjester and all the other cool villains? Yeah, don't be getting excited just yet. I do things really, really, slowly (as you have likely already noticed). By the way, I've started work on your 'voucher piece' now that it's FINALLY holidays - it'll be a one shot, and I'll hopefully have it finished before February. It's been kind of fun, actually, so thanks for a good choice!

WaterDragonerS: Salamando said something mean about Undine. And class change will PROBABLY come next chapter. No promises.

Feyenal Dragon: I tentatively say it'll be sixty chapters when completed, but that depends on a lot of things. Could be less, could be more.

Wings of Lead: Humour has been a little short of late, but after the next chapter, I'm hoping it'll return to normal levels. This chapter, not so much humour again, so be warned. LOL, I liked your idea, so I hope you don't mind I took a variant of it! And your second idea… pure brilliance. It's not fair that the reviews should be funnier than the story itself! Thanks though, 'twas gold.

Inspired by Duran: As I told WaterDragonerS: Salamando said something mean about Undine. As this is a PG13 rated fic, I don't think I should repeat it here.

Vinter: Hello again! Green, mah favourite!

TheOneAndOnlyT: Hmm, you have a valid point, but I'm not done with that aspect of the story just yet. Thanks for the insightful review. I'll try to improve my updating again – we don't want another two month long wait like that one again, after all.

Bitter Green-Tea: LOL, you picked out one of my favourites! True, Angela IS a little bit slow in this aspect. Let's call it denial. Things should start speeding up after next chapter in the romance department, though.

Lady Storm: I made Fiegmund rather hard in this particular fic for plot purposes, but I'll agree with you there in terms of the game itself. Indeed. There are many, many uses for young, fluffy kittens, especially if they are all cute.

Okay, Response to Reviewers was far too long, especially considering the average length of the chapter, sorry about that but most people had pretty good questions and comments. Thanks for your patience – now on with the chapter!

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 41 – Frosted, with Claws

By Sinnatious

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The first thing they noticed about Fiegmund was its size. It wasn't quite as big as Land Umber had been, but inside an ice cavern with relatively limited space for running, it seemed huge. The God-Beast's entire body appeared to be made up of a greenish-blue sort of ice which looked sharp, heavy, and deadly. Its eyes were beady, cruel-looking and seemed to almost glow red. All three of them, still skittish after their last encounter with the fabled monsters, were definitely Intimidated.

The only sound echoing throughout the entire cavern for one long moment was the harsh, whistling breath of the God-Beast. It seemed to regard them at length, before appearing suddenly disinterested, turning its head away in a manner that suggested it had come charging in expecting to find wolves ravaging its territory and had only discovered a couple of particularly noisy insects instead. In fact, it turned its entire back to them, leisurely making its way back across the ice.

"Is it giving up?" Duran wondered out loud.

Angela, however, was growing red with indignation. "It's IGNORING US!" The God-Beast didn't even consider them a threat! They weren't even worth its attention!

"Well, what do we do about that?" Hawk mused, twirling one of his blades casually in his fingers.

"I'll show you what we do about that! FIRE BALL!"

It was only after the spell was halfway to its destination that Angela remembered it was a God-Beast they were dealing with, not a recalcitrant thief. Furthermore, she recalled that pissing off said God-Beasts was never a good idea, especially ones that were so powerful that they were sure enough of themselves to dismiss mere humans as one would a baby Lullabud.

On the other hand, it did get Fiegmund's attention rather spectacularly.

Whirling again, the beast roared at them, causing the cavern to shake ominously.

"Angie! Distract it!" Hawk ordered as he and Duran leapt away in opposite directions as the God-Beast bore down on the Delvar in a fury.

"WHAT?! You filthy cowards!" she shrieked, but threw another fire ball into the God-Beast's face anyway as she scuttled backwards. At least her magic seemed to be having some sort of effect - it shrieked in pain, and its thick armour seemed halt-melted and warped when it emerged from the smoke to come thundering after her. It might have hurt it, but it certainly wasn't stopping it. "Fire ball, Fire ball, Fire ball, FIRE BALL! Duran, Hawk, DO something already! Ack!"

Fiegmund launched itself at her, and the Princess's sense of self-preservation kicked in as she abandoned her position and tried to dive to the side. The monster's claw still grazed her and knocked her to the ground, but what were a few scratches and bruises these days? She doggedly pulled herself back to her feet in time to see Duran attack the God-Beast's flank, just as Hawk leapt atop the creature and made for the back of its neck.

The thief uttered an array of words that Angela was beginning to recognise and catalogue as Navarrian profanities when his knives failed to pierce the deceptively thick armour. Duran didn't seem to be having much luck either, despite his nice new shiny mythril sword, which they were rapidly beginning to sincerely believe wasn't a fake after all. Either way, while the Knight was managing to cause at least visible damage, he couldn't seem to deliver anything more debilitating than several shallow gashes. The trio were all fervently hoping that there wasn't any truth to the old adage of wounded beasts being more dangerous.

Shrieking, Fiegmund lashed out with one foot in retaliation, catching the handsome Knight unawares and flinging him across the cavern, until he hit the opposite wall with a sickening crack before sliding to the ground, unresponsive. Angela's winced, running quickly to his aid. Or at least, attempting to. Honestly, what kind of Princess with any self-respect LIMPED? Perhaps her brief brush with the creature had caused a little more damage than she expected - but in all honesty, she should be playing the role of the distressed damsel, not running about haphazardly trying to save people's lives! Come to think of it, how many opportunities had she missed to play such a coveted role? Had Hawk and Duran been conditioning her for so long that she ACCEPTED acting as the distraction?

Resolutely putting the issue aside for later deliberation, the Delvar began shaking the Knight in a futile attempt to wake him up. "Dammit, Duran, this is the WORST POSSIBLE TIME to be sleeping on the job! Snap out of it! WISP! Get out here! Argh!" It figures that their healer would be the first one to get badly injured. What could she use to wake the Knight up?

Later, she would wonder what by Undine had possessed her to try such a foolish thing. Maybe it was her frazzled nerves, or maybe it was the last-ditch attempt of all last-ditch attempts to see if she had some hope with the flame-haired Knight. Regardless, she thought that it couldn't hurt to be sure, could it? What the hell. Duran needed to be woken, and it always worked in the fairy tales, right?

Angela bent over and kissed the Knight of Forcena on the lips.

If nothing else, at least it had the desired effect.

Gasping, Duran bolted upright, then clutched his head where he'd collided it with the Delvar's. "ACK! Princess? Ow. I had the strangest dream about Hawk running up a tree...."

HAWK! She'd almost forgotten about him! Rubbing her forehead, bruised from the Knight's impromptu head butt, she turned to see Hawk staring at them, apparently dumbfounded. Fiegmund, unfortunately, chose to take advantage of the thief's sudden leave of senses, and finally managed to fling him from its back. The Navarrian hit the ground hard and half rolled, half slid across the ice before coming to a stop where he struggled in obvious pain back to his feet, looking rather disorientated as the snarling God-Beast bore down on him.

"Duran! Healing duty! I've got to go help Hawk!" she ordered as she stumbled to a standing position.

"Princess... I can't.... my magic...." When the hell had the Knight even had the CHANCE to exhaust his magic so soon? She'd thought his endurance had improved!

Fiegmund roared in the other end of the cavern. No time for arguments! She impatiently handed Duran a generous sample of the magical herbs she had purchased earlier, before taking some herself as an afterthought. She didn't want her magic to weaken or give out at a critical moment. Not waiting a moment longer, she started hurrying across the ice to aid the current befuddled thief, not even noticing when the warm glow of healing magic encompassed her and healed her cuts and bruises a moment later. "FIRE BALL!"

The attack gave Duran the time to heal all of them and for Hawk to find what little brain he possessed again. Of course, Angela soon found herself once again running for her life. "Goddess damn it, why does it always come after ME?!"

"Must be your radiant beauty, Angie! Why, it'd make any God-Beast jealous!"

"Stop trying to be cool, Hawk, and help me out here!! ACK!"

Angela suddenly slipped, tripping and sliding face-first along the ice. Stupid icy floor! How embarrassing was this?! Nobody ever TRIPPED in the middle of a battle! Whose bright idea was it to be throwing around fire balls in an cavern made of ice?! Wait, it was hers. Well this was it - she was dead. She'd avoided her grisly fate until now, but not even the Mana Goddess could save her from such a slip-up in front of a God-Beast!

The Delvar groaned at her own poor excuse of a pun before she noticed something. She was still alive. Which meant....

She rolled her head to the side, violet hair partially obscuring her vision. There was Hawk, waving his arms and shouting incoherently at Fiegmund, though she was pretty sure she heard some insults about the God-Beast's mother. He threw what looked to be a second spray of knives at the monster, which grunted and shook them off effortlessly, before running angrily after its new target. At least most of the God-Beasts were lacking in attention span. This was hopeless! Were they going to be spending the entire battle relying on a well-timed diversion to save them from certain death?

Come to think of it, why wasn't Hawk moving out of the way?

Angela watched in a horrified sort of fascination as Fiegmund flung itself recklessly, full-speed, towards the calmly waiting thief. Twenty stretches, ten, five, three..... Why wasn't Hawk MOVING already?!

At the last possibly moment, the thief dived to the ground, evaded the sharp snap of Fiegmund's jaws, slid between the clawed feet, then under the belly, before finally emerging on the other side. Of all the crazy, suicidal things she'd seen the thief do this was the worst!

As Hawk scrambled away from the angrily swishing tail, Fiegmund let out a surprised shriek, suddenly scrabbling on the slick ice in a desperate effort to break its forward rush. So intent on killing the bothersome human insect it had been that the monster hadn't even registered the fact that he had been standing not even ten stretches away from the wall. With a sickening crunch, the God-Beast crashed into the wall headfirst with an impact that made the entire ice cavern shudder.

Okay, so the thief's insane suicidal moves usually worked out. That didn't mean that she wouldn't be giving him a good-natured razzing later on.

The God-Beast of Ice lurched drunkenly away from the wall, shaking its head to clear it after the collision. It seemed.... embarrassed? It WAS pretty shameful to be faked by someone like, Hawk, she admitted. In a desperate effort to reclaim its lost dignity, it started attacking in fervour, leaving Duran fumbling for Wisps' magic once again as the deadly dance of attack and retreat continued. If it weren't for the saving touch of healing magic, they would probably have been dead ten times over.

It continued this way for what seemed like forever, Angela having to replenish her and Duran's magic reserves with their dangerously dwindling supply of herbs multiple times. Hawk had even grown desperate and tried Body Change and Sleep Flower on the beast, only to be disappointed when they discovered that it didn't work on a God-Beast. Figures. She knew that the desert rat's magic would be useless where it counted.

As tired as they were quickly becoming, even if they were stuffing magic replenishing and energy herbs down their throats as the battle progressed, Fiegmund too was becoming aggravated by their unwillingness to hurry up and die. So when the God-Beast suddenly stilled, they knew better than to hope they'd driven the monster to give up. What would come next?

Their answer was delivered swiftly as the temperature suddenly dropped drastically, and an eerie sort of breeze entered the sealed cavern. Even Angela, native to Altena and by now a veteran of the Sub-Zero Snowfields, felt chilled to the bone as the wind grew into a gale and the air began to fill with tiny snowflakes. Duran was shivering, and Hawk's lips were turning blue.

Of course. The other God-Beasts had all possessed some type of Elemental magic, what was there to suggest that Fiegmund didn't? Dangaard had used hardly anything more than a few subtle bursts of wind, which Flammie had easily accommodated for, so they had already forgotten the terror of Land Umber's rain of Diamond Missiles and the God Beast of Light's piercing beam of rather painful holy magic.

It became only worse as the gale grew into a violent whirlwind and the tiny snowflakes became small icicles that ripped past them, stinging their skin and opening shallow cuts. Angela reflexively flung up her arms and cane to protect her face and eyes, calling on Jinn's magic to deflect as much of it as possible, but even with all of her strength poured into it, her exhausted magic against that of a God-Beast's only provided a little protection.

After an eternity and a half, though it was likely no more than a minute or so, the God-Beast of Ice's magical blizzard abated. The Delvar finally lowered her arms and quickly ceased the flow of Jinn's magic, as without a force to resist against it nearly blew a hole in the opposite wall. Despite her best efforts, her arms and legs were still covered in several shallow cuts from the tiny frozen projectiles. The bottom of her red dress was shredded and covered in frost, too, despite the numerous defensive spells woven into the fabric - her favourite red dress, completely ruined! Duran had faired the best out of all them, with his shield and head-to-toe armour protecting him from everything save the intense cold.

Hawk, on the other hand, had neither the benefit of armour nor Jinn's wind magic to lessen the brunt of the attack. He was shivering violently and staggering as he attempted to remain standing. Wow. That had to hurt. A lot.

Duran didn't need to even be told to cast his healing light this time. It was fortunate he was becoming so very fast with the spell - within moments the Princess and Navarrian were back in fine fighting form, though the magic hadn't managed to heal all of their injuries. Those that remained, though, were no more irritating than a simple itch. Angela had a come a long way from the days when a simple graze was reason enough to stay in her room all week, after all.

So the deadly ballet began again.

The Delvar spat out another fireball, seeing as that was the only thing that seemed to be causing any significant damage. All the same, her fireballs simply weren't enough on their own! Duran was making an admirable effort, but Hawk seemed to have given up altogether. Not that she really blamed him, but there was no way that she'd let him laze around while SHE was doing all the dirty work!

"Hawk! Stop lollygagging! Or next time we'll use you as BAIT!"

The Ranger paid her no mind, as he seemed to be searching rather hurriedly through his many hidden pockets and satchels. "I know I put it in here somewhere....," he muttered.

Even the normally patient Knight was becoming annoyed. "Hawk, a little help please?"

"AHA! Found it!" Triumphant, the thief held up two innocuous ruby-red coins. He tossed one to Duran, who fumbled for a moment before catching it in his left hand. "Just press it onto your blade!"

Faithfully, the Forcenan did as suggested, and was shocked when upon contact the odd coin seemingly melted into nothing. Not a moment later the sword began to glow an iridescent red, with occasional flickers of fire bursting from the edges and licking the air.

"A flame sabre?" Angela asked, stunned as she mechanically sent off another spell.

Hawk had already applied the other artefact to his own weapons, and was now advancing on the unsuspecting God-Beast. He attacked Fiegmund's left flank as Duran approached from the opposite side. Where before the blades had grated against the icy plating, they now cut through it like butter, and were rewarded with a pain filled shriek as Fiegmund thrashed about, surprised at the sudden breach of its defences.

They were forced to momentarily retreat at the God-Beast's tantrum, but renewed their attack almost immediately, fuelled by the motivation that the hellish battle might finally end as Fiegmund moved more and more sluggishly.

Of course, it never was that easy.

The Ranger had once again leapt up onto the fiend's back, and promptly plunged his sword swords into the back of the beast's neck. It hissed in agony, but the creature was simply too large for it to be a fatal blow. This time, instead of merely throwing the thief off, it lurched into a wall, crushing him with its frosty armour. Angela's heart clenched as the thief cried out in pain, before he fell limp, dropping to the ground as Fiegmund moved onto its next target. A moment later, she was relieved to see the rise and fall of her comrade's chest. Unconscious, and probably with more broken bones than she'd care to count, but alive. Even if the middle of a battle with a God-Beast WAS a terribly inconvenient time to be out cold.

"Duran-" she began, taking several steps towards the comatose thief before the Ice Beast swung its claws at her blindly in its mad rage. The blow was only glancing, and partially deflected by a hastily raised cane, but she winced all the same, staggering back. Was that blood trickling down her cane arm? Half-healed injuries had a way of accumulating in the midst of a long battle, and she had the distinct impression that Fiegmund had unwittingly just re-opened her last one, which Duran scarcely had the energy left to heal - she had the given the Knight her last satchel of herbs after that. Her own magic felt drained and weakened from the constant use of Salamando's fire magic, but they had to give priority to healing above all else. With the amount of Wisp's magic the Forcenan had used this battle, it was amazing they hadn't run out sooner. Regardless, she pulled out everything she had, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, she'd missed some. She cursed silently when all she could find was a couple of sham quick-cure potions the merchant cats had duped Duran into buying.

Horror settled over her when she finally glanced up to see the Knight in question plunge his sword deep into the left shoulder of the God-Beast. He was attacking it front-on?! And she thought Hawk was insane! Had he no self-preservation instinct whatsoever?

Well, he had quite cheerfully accepted the danger-ridden task of being the Mana Knight, no questions asked.

The Knight's reflexes were too slow to avoid the charging head butt of the enraged Mana Beast, and moments later, he suffered a similar fate to Hawk. As he too fell unresponsive for the second time that battle, Angela's terror only mounted when Fiegmund, battered and bloody, lurched away drunkenly - grievously injured, but still very much alive.

Both Duran and Hawk, out for the count. She herself not possessing a whit of healing magic.

She closed her eyes in resignation. It was all or nothing.

Angela braced herself against the ice walls of the cavern, holding her Ancient Cane shakily up in front of her. Draining her every last reserve of magic and energy, she forced all of her power to the tips of her fingers, dragging that which would not flow by sheer force of mind alone, and willed it to blast from the cane and smite the monstrosity of Mana before them.

"Star Attack," she whispered, wishing not for the first time that Duran had given at least a slightly more apocalyptic name.

The magic flared and shot from her staff in a blinding destructive light, shattering the royal treasure into woodchips - it was her most powerful one yet. Satisfied at her skill and shocked at the destruction of her Ancient Cane, but strangely too apathetic to care, she slumped to the ground, exhausted by her effort. Her vision was swimming, with blackness creeping in at the edges, but through the haze she was immensely relieved to see Fiegmund collapse and lie still, the God-Beast's form already beginning to dissipate into clouds of malevolent Mana energy.

That was that taken care of. Duran was unconscious on side of the cavern, Hawk on the other, and here she was with barely the strength left to move. Her eyes suddenly caught the glistening liquid of the merchant cats' quick-cure elixirs, carelessly dropped as she rushed into her last attack.

What could it hurt to try? It's not like it could possibly do more damage.

She threw back her head and swallowed the translucent blue concoction in one gulp.

Blinking, the Princess wasn't certain whether to feel smugness or despair when nothing happened for a long moment. A minute later though, just as she was beginning to entertain all sorts of methods of torturous revenge for the travelling rip-off artists, a warm, familiar feeling flowed through her, numbing her pain and pushing back the overwhelming fatigue to something more manageable. When her vision properly cleared, she was amazed to discover her injuries healed. Upon inspection, it wasn't quite as thorough as Wisp's magic, but an itchy scratch as opposed to a bleeding gash was nothing to be complaining about. The merchant cats HADN'T been lying to them?

She'll be damned. Duran was right about something.

The World really was going to end.

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Next chapter will be better, I swear. And faster, too. As always, please review. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (Good riddance 2004!) 


	43. When Rabites Fly

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter is long. Be sure to be properly fed and watered before attempting to read it.

Author's note: Happy 2005! I actually have both a speedy and chunky update for you this fine January day. I crammed a fair amount into this chapter, yet still didn't manage to fit the long-awaited class changes in. Ah well, next chapter for that. Hopefully this will make up for the long wait and shortness of the last chapter. Wow. The fastest update in a year. That sadly isn't saying as much as I would like it to. Don't get used to it.

Response to the Reviewers!:

Feyenal Dragon: It was two and a half months, actually, sorry about that. I didn't think anyone would really want to hear my excuses, because I ALWAYS have excuses, but since you insist – I was busy doing a little thing called University finals. I'm all nice and graduated now, though, but then I had a family member hopping in and out of hospital which was not so much stressful as it was time consuming. Rest assured 90 of my free time is spent writing. No need for the death threats – I updated, see? (Please put the Masamune away. I can't type when I'm so nervous.)

Freeloader1: Thanks very much. It does help to hear it.

Lady Storm: Zombie voice Keyboard…. Compelling me…..

FrickinEvilPoptart: You have a point. Though technically Angela WAS participating in that kiss scene. Glad you liked the action, though. MERRY PLATYPUS ONE AND ALL!

Soriyu: New reviewer, welcome! Thanks for the high praise, and I'd love to see that fanart – have you posted it anywhere? Happy New Year to you too.

Just Call Me Angels: Yes. Yes he was. Curses, you ARE observant. Hey, SOMEONE has to write those daytime soap opera scripts. As to your question, I think you missed this bit: "This time, instead of merely throwing the thief off, it lurched into a wall, crushing him with its frosty armour. Angela's heart clenched as the thief cried out in pain, before he fell limp, dropping to the ground as Fiegmund moved onto its next target." The kiss can be as steamy as you want to imagine it. Thanks for your reviews!

Thousand Winds: Yes, last update time was bad, sorry about that. Jealousy was what I was thinking in terms of that particular scene, you are correct there. Finish the fic? It's like science fiction or something. It just won't die…. Thanks for the review!

Cookie Pixie: Ah, you're right! Claws, not coins! (Looks sheepish) I keep getting them mixed up. Come to think of it, it's been about two years since I lasted played myself. Please forgive me for the odd stuff up. Thanks for the review!

TheOneAndOnlyT: I've received a lot of questions about that, actually. Hopefully this chapter should more or less answer them. Thanks for the review!

Sorrow in Shadow: Wow. Thanks. What else can I say to that?

(Smiley Face): All of your questions should be answered this chapter. I hope you enjoy it! LOL, poor Angela indeed.

That's enough from me, on with the chapter!

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**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 43 – When Rabites Fly

By Sinnatious

* * *

By the time the potions Angela had administered to her two bumbling idiots of companions took effect, she was already kneeling among the splintered remains of her Ancient Cane, head held in her hands.

"Uh... Angela?" Duran asked nervously.

"My mother is going to kill me," she stated flatly. She'd been entrusted with a likely priceless ancient and irreplaceable family treasure…. and she'd blown it to bits. Tiny, tiny, TINY bits at that. She was relatively certain she could feel as least a dozen splinters in her hand. That was TWO canes now that her stupid Star Attack had successfully obliterated!

"There, there," Hawk consoled her, though his smile seemed unusually strained. "She's already tried that, and you survived. She can't do anything worse."

"And my dress! My favourite red dress is completely ruined!" she stared aghast at the shredded skirt of her outfit as if only noticing it for the first time - barely enough remained intact for her accommodate what she considered a respectable level of modesty.

The Fairy, who had been blessedly absent for the entirety of the battle, finally revealed herself once again. "Honestly, Princess, pull yourself together! There are bigger things at stake!"

"Well, there's no immediate danger, though I would like to go back to Elrand and get some sleep," the Forcenan pointed out calmly, though he too seemed unusually nervous, shooting the Princess numerous glances out of the corner of his eye.

"My dress! And my Staff! That filthy God-Beast!"

"I'll steal you a new one if it bothers you that much," the Ranger offered.

"You don't understand it, do you?! That cane was irreplaceable!"

"If you're worried about your mother, I know some people who could have an imitation made! Top quality fakes made for a low, low price. So long as she never tries to use it, your mother will never know the difference!"

Angela paused, then glared.

"Lousy stinking rotten good-for-nothing thief," she grumbled.

"I prefer 'products and funds re-distributor'."

"Honestly, we just defeated another God-Beast and all she can think about is her mother and her clothes?" the Fairy snorted in contempt.

"If that's settled can we go back to Elrand now? I'm freezing, I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm willing to bet the Mana Sword that you guys are too," Hawk complained. The Princess fell silent, surprised that the thief wasn't trying to drag out their argument and start flirting like he usually did. Then again, he was right - all of them were exhausted, and even if those weird concoctions and Wisp's magic had taken care of the majority of the damage, her muscles were still complaining from the abuse she'd forced upon them. Not to mention how drained their magic was. Duran probably still had a little bit of energy left for healing magic, but Angela felt she'd be hard pressed to even pull off a weak Holy Ball at this point in time.

"You can't bet what you don't have," she grumbled beneath her breath.

"Let's get outside and call Flammie," Duran announced hurriedly, rushing out of the large cavern. Again, the Princess found herself blinking in surprise and confusion. What was his problem? He was acting horribly nervous and awkward, and for that matter, Hawk wasn't quite himself either. Exhaustion and post-battle depression aside, they were both rather skittish around her. Surely just because she'd delivered the finishing blow this time instead of the mighty Mana Knight, they weren't afraid of her, were they?

The mind-reading pest floated past her in the Forcenan's wake, scowling. "You sure have a short memory, don't you? Typical. Only ever thinking of yourself."

Oh yeah. She'd kissed Duran. That might explain the Knight's unusual behaviour, at least.

The Princess of Altena thought back briefly on the stolen kiss with Duran. At the time, she had hardly been thinking - in retrospect it was about the last thing anyone should be doing in a life or death battle. It wasn't like he was about to die in a pool of his own blood or anything, or her either for that matter. Either way, it was chilling to realise that when she'd kissed him, she'd felt nothing. There wasn't even any lust for the Knight anymore.

Normally, this probably wouldn't phase her - after all, she'd come to the conclusion that she no longer loved him at least a day or so ago. But that was the issue. She'd quite happily seduced men which she had far less feeling for on a relatively regular basis prior to her temporary exile from Altena, and had certainly enjoyed it. Duran, with his muscled body, reddish hair and clear blue eyes, was already far better looking than most of those. Had her sexual libido been somehow repressed under the strain of the past two months?

Shaking herself briefly to rid herself of such thoughts until a later time, she stood and hurried out of the cavern, following the others before she fell behind. Had it been Duran's first? Well, she didn't really count that half-a-day long tryst with Hawk, considering the Knight didn't even remember it and was under the influence of drugs at the time. She'd never imagined that he'd be THAT inexperienced, but the Knight was so naive at times it was possible. Great. She'd probably just gone and made things incredibly awkward now, just for a whim! Okay, it was a whim that HAD worked - Duran had woken up, after all - but a whim to prove something to herself, none-the-less. She was rather hoping that Duran had been too out of it to even register it happened. The Delvar certainly hoped that he didn't say anything about it, because 'it was just a test to make sure' sounded a little too cold, even for her.

Fortunately, the way out of the Labyrinth was much more straightforward than the way in, so it was a relatively short time later that they reached the cavern where the Mana Stone of Ice once stood. More time had passed in the faintly illuminated ice caverns than what they had expected - they emerged to find the sun well into the sky of the next day. Sleep was highest on the agenda.

Sleep they did. Flammie had dropped them off at Elrand, and in a pattern that was becoming too commonplace for their peace of mind, they staggered into the inn where the startled innkeeper once again just ushered them to their room without asking a single question, muttering something about breakfast being on the house because of 'all the great publicity'. He probably wouldn't feel quite so generous when they skipped out on the bill again the next day, but being Elrand, maybe Angela could just charge it to the royal house of Altena.

For the rest of the afternoon, and indeed all the way through until the next morning, the three warriors slept. Angela couldn't speak for the others, but it was a deep, dreamless sleep, though at one point towards sunrise she vaguely stirred, almost certain that she could feel curious Elementals poking around in her thoughts, probably to make sure she wasn't dead.

When she finally rose, she wasn't surprised to see Duran already awake, shining his armour. He was staring into space, no doubt brooding again - it was looking to be one of his new habits. When he saw her awake, though, he smiled brightly, and greeted her. "Good Morning, Angela. You look like you slept well. The innkeeper said that breakfast will be in about an hour."

She nodded dumbly, sleep still fogging her mind. How could he be so cheery first thing in the morning? Gathering her things, she strode towards the bathroom, kicking Hawk's bed along the way. If left to his own devices, the lazy thief would no doubt sleep all day.

First order of business was shopping. Now that she no longer had to hide her identity as the Princess of Altena for fear of the death penalty, it didn't matter if she had no money - she could simply charge it to the royal house of Altena, like she used to. It was a shame that she couldn't use that neat privilege in other nations, but for present time, she was grateful. After that, it was a nice, long, hot bath. Ah, bless Snow City Elrand and its properly functioning facilities. There really was no place like home.

It was an hour later when the Delvar strode into the dining room of the inn, properly washed, groomed and clothed, and feeling infinitely better for it. She still felt vulnerable without a weapon, but it was clear that if a royal treasure like the Ancient Cane couldn't survive her Star Attack anymore, absolutely nothing sold in Elrand would. As distasteful as the thought was, they might have to try and track down those travelling merchant cats again. She still had no idea how they acquired the wares they did, but a true mythril sword was nothing to sneeze at. It wasn't the finest sword material in legend, but it was certainly close.

"Angie," Hawk greeted as they sat down around the table, the Ranger again liberating all of his favourite foods from Duran's plate. The Princess rolled her eyes, silently thankful that at least he had manners enough to leave her plate mostly alone. He stared, hand poised over the plate of bread. "I thought you were going to get a NEW dress?"

She flung her lavender hair over her shoulder and stuck her nose into the air. "It IS new."

The dress was still red. The cut, if one paid attention, differed slightly and there was a slight sheen to the material that indicated freshly woven defensive spells applied to the fabric. But otherwise, it looked as if she had done a spectacular job at mending her old one.

"Where- How-?" Duran seemed be struggling to form a coherent question.

"I was fortunate enough to run into the castle's chief dressmaker in the town square," she explained, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. The innkeeper really HAD gone all out. And was that her favourite royal jam spread on the bread? "Pleasant lady. Very competent and efficient." More importantly, the woman had grace enough not to comment on the condition of the Princess's former favourite garment, shredded and encrusted with dried mud and blood as it was.

The Fairy appeared and started buzzing circles around their heads, growing impatient. "We shouldn't be wasting time chit-chatting! We all agree that Angela's new red dress is very nice, but there are more important things to talk about! We're halfway through the God-Beasts - we should work out our plan for taking on the God Beast of Fire!"

The mood, peaceful and almost jovial until now, abruptly darkened. The Fairy looked nervous at the sudden silence and gloomy expressions. "What?"

"..… We've only defeated four of them. And they get stronger every time," Angela whispered, slumping forward in her chair.

"Of course they do! That's why you have to hurry and defeat the rest!"

"What if the next one is too strong?" Hawk asked ominously.

"It won't be. The three of you together will be enough to defeat it," the tiny deity stated confidently, though they sensed doubt creeping into her voice - the irritating gnat could read their minds at will, supposedly, and so could not deny everything.

The Princess of Altena hunched down in her seat, shivering as she relieved the terror of not even an entire day ago. "We almost died this last time. By all rights we SHOULD have died. If that last attack had failed to kill Fiegmund, we wouldn't even be here right now. We spent EVERYTHING we had, and it was barely enough."

The emissary from the Mana Holyland was growing almost hysterical as she watched her chosen Champions lose faith. "But it was enough! I'll admit it was close, but you prevailed in the end!"

"Fairy! We can't keep fighting the God-Beasts and winning as we are now," Duran stated firmly. "They're getting too strong for us." It was obviously a problem if the recklessly brave Knight of Forcena was admitting it.

"No, you can succeed!" The Fairy pleaded. "There's no one else out there that has been blessed by all of the Elementals AND the Goddess! You are the only ones who have any hope of succeeding! You must just keep developing your skills! All of you have become so much stronger since you first started out! You CAN do this!"

Hawk shook his head firmly. "Fairy, we've all developed our skills as much as can. All of us can cast every spell in our arsenal instantly and practically in our SLEEP. And our development of our physical skills isn't keeping up with how quickly the God-Beasts are developing. We MIGHT win the next battle, but the battle after that - we'll die. And there will still be undefeated God-Beasts running around."

Angela couldn't resist. "Told you so."

Wringing her hands desperately, the tiny deity floated about, seeming to be deep in thought. "I know, I know..... You're right..... but there may be a way."

The Knight looked up sharply. "What?!"

"You may have heard.... of the second class-change?"

Angela physically reeled backwards at the idea. "Of course we've heard of it... but we'd need a Mana Stone to do that! And in case you've forgotten, let me remind you - THEY'RE IN MANY TINY LITTLE PIECES RIGHT NOW!"

"Besides," Hawk interjected. "I heard that the second class-change was sealed anyway."

"This is all true," the Fairy admitted. "However, in the Mana Holyland.... there is a statue.... that emits the same energy as a Mana Stone. We could use THAT for the second class change. The way to the Holyland is wide open at the moment, and now that the sword is gone, it should be relatively empty."

The idea was mind-boggling. If the second class change was anything like their first class change had been, then they were just being offered an instant explosive power boost. Which was what they were going to need if they were going to survive this silly quest.

Wait a minute.... "Hawk's right, the second class change IS sealed! Suppose this statue can do it, how do we break the seal?! Even I haven't learned the magic theory for THAT!"

"There is a way, fairly simple, though not many people know of it. There are few that even possess the potential to perform a second change, but the Elementals all seem to think you have what it takes, so we can entrust you with this secret." At her words, Angela felt support and an up welling of faith bleed through her bond with the Elementals. To her, Shade's and Salamando's voices were the loudest, with others quietly echoing their sentiments. Hawk had his eyes closed, and even Duran's face looked warmed by the sensation.

The Fairy stilled her nervous flutter, floating without aid in the air, her eyes growing large and solemn. "It is dangerous, though, to perform the second change. You must be fully committed to it. If the situation wasn't so dire, I wouldn't even suggest it."

Even for Angela, though, there was no question. If it came to choosing between taking a risk with the God-Beasts and a second class change, she'd take the class change any day. Duran would do it because it was the noble thing to do. Hawk would probably do it just to look cool for the ladies.

Being the mind-reading pest that she was, the Fairy turned away with a sigh before they'd even had the chance to answer out loud. "Very well, then. There's one other thing you'll need in order to perform the class change. You'll need a sacrifice."

"WHAT?! A sacrifice?!" Angela yelled, quickly lowering her voice when the innkeeper stuck his head questioningly in the room. Once he had retreated again, she continued in a hushed yet furious tone. "Are you mad?! That would make us no better than Koren and those other lowlifes who unsealed all the stones! I'll have you know I was nearly used as a sacrifice once, and I did not appreciate it!"

'Be calm,' Wisp's voice floated into her head, though the look on her companion's faces indicated they were hearing it too. 'It is not a human life that the Fairy speaks of.'

Nodding, the small deity quickly explained, "You need to sacrifice an item of some kind. This item must have several qualities in order for the process to work. First of all, it is best if the item is old, or better yet, ancient. Secondly, the item should ideally be one of a kind. It is a sacrifice, after all, and the more rare and irreplaceable the item is, the better." A shame she didn't still have that Ancient Staff, the Delvar mused. "Finally.... the item must be something personal to you, something you find precious on a deeper level."

Angela snorted, glancing at Hawk. "You'll be having trouble there, desert rat."

"Especially seeing as I can't sacrifice you, my dear," he replied in a fake sweet voice. The Princess could swear she heard the sniggering of Elementals in her head.

"Perhaps I could get away with sacrificing you," she retorted snidely. "After all, your wit is comparable to that of an inanimate object."

"Why, Angie, could you possibly finally be admitting you have feelings for me?" Hawk announced in mock delight. Duran was looking uncomfortable at this conversation several feet away, but the Princess paid him no mind.

"When rabites fly," she snapped.

The Fairy coughed pointedly, interrupting the conversation. "As I was saying," she stated with a glare, "It should have some personal meaning. It can be anything, but it should be powerful, and it's better if it's somehow related to what you want to achieve with your class change."

A silence fell as each of the three contemplated this carefully. Angela herself was running through a long list of her many possessions, and when she failed to locate something that fit the criteria, began mentally cataloguing some of Altena's national treasures. Being Princess had its advantages, after all. She paused when what she sought finally came to mind. It was perfect. In fact, she found herself rather amazed that it hadn't come to mind immediately. Carrying all those Elementals, not to mention the Fairy for half the time, probably made her thoughts foggy.

"I've thought of something that should work," Duran announced. He looked uneasy for some reason. "But it's in Forcena."

"I already have mine," Hawk confessed. That was convenient at least, though the Princess, in reflection, considered it rather sad that thief likely carried all of his most treasured possessions on his person.

"I've thought of something too. It's in Altena," Angela confirmed tiredly. It looked like they'd have to do some impromptu globe-trotting before they could proceed with the class change. She was reluctant to put off the God-Beast chase for even a day, given how quickly the monsters seemed to be developing, but it was a little easier on her now that the threat to Altena had been severely diminished. She felt Salamando's bubbling pride - he clearly felt that he'd done quite an adequate job containing his God-Beast, and was wordlessly reassuring her that the delay would be worth it. There were times when she cursed this bond with the Elementals, but at times like this, she was grateful for it.

"We'll go pick up Angela's first, since it's the closest," the Fairy declared, "Then Duran's, then we'll head to the Holyland for the change. We should leave now - if Flammie flies fast, we can be done by evening."

"Since when did YOU give the orders around here, gnat?!" the Princess snarled, dearly wishing she still had her cane to swat the shiny insect with.

"Have you forgotten that I'm a representative from the Mana Holyland?! I can give orders if I want to!"

Neither Hawk nor Duran seemed to be paying any interest to the by-now typical squabbles between the Delvar and glorified pixie. "Do we pay this innkeeper or not?" Duran asked. It appeared that the honourable Forcenan was becoming quite used to breaking the law.

"I'll just bill it to my mother. She probably won't even notice," Angela stated confidently. After all, she was already going to be wrung out for doing what she was about to do - not to mention there was the issue of the Ancient Cane and all the other expenses she'd billed her mother during this brief jaunt to the snowy continent. She figured if she was going to be in trouble, it might as well be worth it.

That settled, Hawk called Flammie while Angela settled the account with the beaming innkeeper. The scheming merchant was probably already plotting additional extras to charge for, but it was one of her last concerns at this point in time. Chances were Hawk had emptied the till and relieved the inn of several shiny ornaments anyhow, so it would no doubt still be coming out even.

It wasn't even two minutes later that they were standing outside of the charred remains of the Gates to the magical Kingdom of Altena. Several members of the lower ranks of the army were clearing away the rubble still, while construction workers were preparing to set up new Gates, hopefully of a more aesthetic design, to replace the ones the Delvar had courteously blasted. Picking their way through the destruction, Angela led the way to the Palace library, doing her best to avoid any advisors or servants who might recognise her. No reason her mother should know she was here.

"Uh, Angela, where are we going?" Duran asked as they turned yet another corner and headed up some steps.

"Library!" she called back over shoulder, swatting Hawk's hand as it trailed over the gilded frame of a portrait. "No stealing on my home turf, you flea-bitten scoundrel! How many times do I have to tell you?! Honestly, thieves have no manners at all!"

"Sounds like some Princesses I know," he responded cheekily.

Rolling her eyes, they finally arrived at the library where she had endured many lessons with Jose. Peering carefully into the room to make certain the elderly scholar wasn't anywhere nearby - she certainly didn't have time for one of his lectures - she led her three companions stealthily into the back sections of the library, which was cloaked in shadows and the shelves all covered with a thick layer of dust. Wincing at the clunking noise the less agile Knight made as he followed, she breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the restricted room uninterrupted. Why hadn't she just left them outside? Duran simply didn't DO stealth and Hawk was constantly eyeing off every single thing of monetary value, and probably a few things that weren't.

Too late now. She sought out the vase with the key to the door hidden under it - as a child, she'd appreciated the simplicity of breaking in, but now that she was a bit older she was considering having a talk with the elderly scholar about some of his security measures. She was Princess, it was fine for her to have access, some might even say it was her right, but any drunkard could find their way in here with a bit of luck! That would have to be added to her long list of 'Things To Think About If She EVER Had The Time', though. That list was getting disturbingly long these days, as she pushed issue after issue to the side in the wake of immediate problems.

Unlocking the door and easing it open carefully, she stepped into the room, her eyes landing almost instantly on the book which she sought. Almost reverently, she pulled it from the shelf, holding it gingerly in her hands for the first time in years.

"That's it?" Hawk asked, appearing at her side without warning. She jerked in surprise, reflexively pulling the book close to her heart. "A book? I didn't think you were the scholarly type, Angie."

She scowled. "I'm not. But this is no ordinary book. It's The Forbidden Book." Figures Hawk would spend his entire time casing out useless trinkets and wouldn't even recognise a priceless treasure when it was right under his nose.

"The Forbidden Book? That sounds like an odd title," Duran commented.

"It's not the title. No one knows what the title is. It's just what people call it." She dusted off the cover reverently. "I read it as a little girl, back when I was still dreaming about doing magic. It's incredibly old, and by all rights should be sitting in the royal family treasury. I don't think there's another copy in existence."

"That should do it then," the Fairy announced as she shimmered into sight. She eyed the book shrewdly. "The Forbidden Book indeed. I should have guessed. Shade was right after all."

Angela didn't even want to know what the Fairy was on about. She gazed at the ancient tome, reluctant to part with it but knowing it was a necessary price. She'd known it was Forbidden - even her own mother hadn't dared to read the book - but the Delvar always had something of an affinity for forbidden things. She understood, though, exactly why this book was banned and why all the other copies had been burned long ago. When she'd first read the book, she'd been excited at the power of the magic in it, one day dreaming of being able to perform such rare, exotic and amazing spells herself. But during her many secret return visits to the book - quite possibly the only voluntary studying she'd ever done - the Princess had finally come to realise just how powerful, and how terrible some of the spells in the book were. In the wrong hands, they were the types of spells that could destroy the world.

She fervently hoped Koren had not read this book.

Shaking herself from her reverie, she tucked it under one arm and pointed to the door. "Let's not dally. If Jose finds us in here, or leaving with this book, there'll be BIG trouble."

Fortunately, the Goddess seemed to be throwing them small blessings again, and their way out of the castle was as uneventful as the journey in. Once safely in the Snowfields, Hawk called Flammie, then it was onward to Forcena.

Though it had been daytime in Altena, it was late in the evening when they landed in the centre of the castle town mere minutes later, the buildings beginning to darken with the day crowds all safely tucked away indoors. The few people still out and about, most likely soldiers on their way to a drink at the inn, didn't pay the white dragon landing in their midst any attention. That was a little odd.

As Flammie took off, though, a voice yelling from above gave them some insight.

"WATCH OUT BELOW!"

Looking up, Angela yelped as she spotted a beefy man with a moustache come barrelling down from the sky. The trio, their reflexes honed after their many battles with the God-Beasts, scattered out of the way just as the man crashed into ground where they had been standing.

"What by Gnome was with THAT?!" the Princess of Altena demanded, still trying to catch her breath from adrenaline rush accompanying the surprise.

Duran didn't respond - instead, he cast a quick healing spell on the man before courteously helping him to his feet. "Are you okay, sir?"

Still looking a little dazed, the stranger absently replied, "Yes, fine, fine. I thought I was going to be so late for the night shift! Wow, Bon Voyage's invention really DOES work well! That took no time at all! A helmet probably wouldn't hurt, though." Dusting himself off, the man ambled towards the castle with a cheery wave while the three stared after him.

"Looks like Bon Voyage's business is doing well," Duran observed mildly.

Angela snorted. "With OUR gunpowder, no doubt."

Hawk looked up into the sky, letting out a low whistle. "Really makes me appreciate Flammie, you know?"

At least that explained why no one in Forcena seemed to pay any attention to them or their white dragon when they landed. With people getting shot out of cannons and coming down from the sky all over the place, an incredibly cute flying dragon probably wasn't unusual at all.

"Duran," the Fairy prodded, revealing herself again.

Giving himself a small shake, the Knight strode off towards their right. "Of course. This way."

They followed him through the familiar streets of the city town. It seemed livelier than when they had last been by, despite the late hour; it was almost as though the locals could already sense the absence of the God-Beast of Earth. Soon they arrived at what Angela belatedly recognised as Duran's house. The light was on in the kitchen, but it was otherwise dark.

The Knight seemed to be hesitating. "Something the matter?" Hawk asked, being the first to notice the Mana Hero's unease.

"Well... it's just that I... you know....," the armour-clad youth shifted from foot to foot, suddenly looking very much like the teen he was, rather than the mature warrior they had become used to.

"He gave an oath never to return home until he defeated the Wizard of the Red Lotus, remember?" The Fairy interrupted impatiently.

Delivering a scowl at the self-important being, Angela replied, "Of course we remember! So, he doesn't want to go inside the house. Maybe you could just get your Aunt to come to door and fetch it for you?"

"Oh, I couldn't do that," he hastily explained. "It would crush my Aunt if she thought I'd returned home only to discover I hadn't. Not to mention, poor Wendy.... I'd sooner break my oath than subject them to that!" For a Knight, she supposed that was a big thing.

"Isn't the mission a little more important than the oath?" the tiny deity muttered in the background, before letting out an 'eeek' as Hawk snatched her from the air in a practiced swipe.

"I know! Let's just get the Fairy to pick it up for you, Duran! She can sneak in without waking anyone up and carry it out the window for you! It's not a large object, is it?"

"I'm not going to become a thief! Let me go right now! This is entirely inappropriate! I'm from the Mana Holyland! I can't steal!"

"It's not stealing. Duran is giving you permission."

Looking relieved at the solution, the Forcenan quickly agreed. "That would work. Could you please do it, Fairy? It would mean ever so much to me."

"It's for the mission, after all. And you wouldn't want the Mana Knight to taint his holy reputation by breaking oaths, after all," Angela added for good measure. Hanging around arguing about it in the front lawn all night wasn't her idea of a good time, after all. Besides, if they stayed here long enough, Hawk was liable to start filching Garden Gnomes again.

The Fairy finally relented. "Okay, I'll do it. But only because it's related to the mission! Don't be getting any ideas in the future!" she announced with a glare at all of them. Under her breath, she was grumbling about being demoted to a light source and a delivery service.

"Thanks Fairy, I appreciate it. It's an old gold medallion with a blue beaded chain. It should be sitting on the table right next to the empty bed. Try not to wake my sister if you can help it. Top floor - that window right there." Duran pointed to the partially opened window on the second floor.

"Okay, okay, I'm going." Floating up, the Fairy disappeared into the darkness of the room.

Several minutes of tense silence followed, Angela being almost certain that the small nuisance would mess up the simple quest. The trio waited anxiously for the inevitable screams of fright and disbelief or better yet, the slap of a fly swat, but the peace remained unbroken. It seemed the Goddess favoured them again - rightly so - as the Fairy finally reappeared, her flight wobbling as she flapped her wing furiously, weighed down by a glinting package.

Exhausted, the Fairy deposited it in Duran's waiting hands, and then landed on his shoulder to catch her breath. "Is that it?"

Nodding affirmatively, the Knight held up the medallion to catch the light. Angela was puzzled - it didn't look like anything much. The medallion was abnormally plain. Even the beaded necklace from which it hung was simple. It looked almost as though it belonged in the dress up box of a spoilt child, really. There had to be something more to it, though, if the Forcenan had dragged them all the way back to his childhood home to fetch it.

"So....," she prompted.

"It's an old family heirloom," he explained. "Family legend has it that my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather endured many tests so that he could become a Paladin - the first in a hundred years. Once he passed all of his trials, the King of Forcena at that time had him crafted this medallion, as proof of his accomplishments."

"Surely there have been other Paladins since," the Fairy interrupted.

"Of course there have been, gnat," Angela said with a withering glance at their companion. "But they didn't all necessarily receive a custom-made medallion from the King of Forcena."

"Besides," Hawk added, stretching languidly, "The material those beads are made out of doesn't exist anymore. Supposedly it was one of the rarest rocks in the Gemstone Valley, and all of it was mined centuries ago. Just one bead came through the Black Market several years ago, and it went for a ridiculous price. A whole string of them, even without the gold, is probably worth more than us commoners care to imagine."

Wow. Shame they had to sacrifice THAT. The plain-looking medallion was worth a lot more than it looked.

"Yes, well," Duran continued, eager to finish his history lesson, "It was passed down through my family - when my father died fighting the Dragon Emperor, he left it to me along with his sword and armour."

"It fits the bill," the Fairy confirmed, a little too hastily for their peace of mind. She probably wanted to pre-empt another one of the well-meaning Knight's historical lectures. They'd already heard the story of the Dragon Emperor and Duran's father several times, most tellings of which had occurred on the back of Booskaboo. "Which reminds me.... Hawk, you said that you already have yours, what is it?"

Sighing, the thief withdrew a pair of dice from one of his many hidden pockets.

Angela blinked. "Dice?"

"I'm not certain that will really qualify, Hawk," the tiny deity murmured doubtfully.

"By now you should know better than to judge a book by its cover," he said, raising an eyebrow at Angela who still clutched the Forbidden Book under one arm. "These are no ordinary dice. Navarre has a gambling racket, you see...."

"Which is probably rigged," the Delvar grumbled.

"Well, OBVIOUSLY it's rigged, it's run by the Thieves' Guild! These days they rig the games using different methods, of course, but back when Navarre taught magic, a thief made a pair of magical bad luck dice, that would always roll losing numbers for your opponents, no matter what."

"So, it's old, but is it rare and is it special?" the Fairy inquired.

Flashing a toothy white grin at her, the Navarrian replied, "Of course! The thief who made the Bad Luck Dice didn't want to have any competition in the market, so he sought out all of the others who could use the magic for the dice and killed them, then burned down their houses. That's why most of Navarre's magic lore was lost."

"Because of those two little dice?!" The desert was a harsh place, indeed. It made the Princess suddenly grateful for the civilized state of Altena.

"They certainly don't look like much, do they?" he said fondly, jiggling them in the palm of his hand. "Either way, Eagle must have inherited or stolen them from Flamekhan at some point, and gave them to me a couple of years ago."

There was a brief, awkward silence at the mention of Eagle. They didn't think that they'd ever get the complete story on that one, but the basics were enough to gather the tenderness of the subject.

"Well, I suppose that's good enough," the Fairy announced brusquely. The Paladin's Proof was impressive in its monetary value, but a pair of dice that had indirectly wiped out the magical culture of Navarre? It was kind of scary just being NEAR the things. "We'd best be calling Flammie and heading to the Holyland. I'd like to get this taken care of BEFORE the end of the world, if you don't mind!"

Angela bit back a snide retort for the benefit of expediency. This time, when Flammie answered the drum, she was starting to look a little put out - they had called her three times in the past day, after all. Her disgruntled bray quickly melted into a purr with a little affection from Hawk, though, so the issue wasn't pressed - they just hoped the white dragon would pick them back up when they were finished in the Mana Holyland. It wasn't like they could call Booskaboo from there, after all.

Come to think of it, what was Booskaboo doing these days, anyhow? After the giant turtle had dropped them off on the shores of Rolante, they'd not called it since. Did it miss them? Or rather, did it miss its regular treats of candy and chocolate they'd taken to feeding it? It had looked rather annoyed when they hadn't given it any farewell candy or chocolate last time. Maybe Flammie wouldn't mind the constant favours if they gave her chocolate? Then again, seeing how dependent the giant turtle had become on the stuff that probably wasn't a habit they should be encouraging.

Angela wound up being seated in the middle this time, having to clutch on to Duran for balance for a change as the dragon accelerated dangerously into the air. A quick warning glare backwards ensured the stillness of Hawk's often wandering hands, and she tried to enjoy the sensation of the wind on her face while making a concerted effort not to look down. Why was it that Duran always got to sit at the front and hold onto mop of orange fur that adorned Flammie's head? She and Hawk were normally left scrabbling for a hold on the much shorter white fur of the dragon's back, or more often than not, each other. The thief had thankfully learnt not to comment on it after the first few applications of a Holy Ball, but she still caught herself blushing sometimes.

The journey was uneventful, but it was still breathtaking when they broke through the Gate to the Mana Holyland to the sight of the floating isle. It was unique in its splendour. Without the conveyed urgency from the Elementals echoing in the back of her mind, Angela had the opportunity to observe the scenery a little more closely. They'd been to some admittedly beautiful places in their weird journey, but the Holyland was still the most stunning. Then again, one would expect nothing less from the Mana Holyland.

It seemed unnaturally still, though, as they landed in the clearing and disembarked. All of the carnage from their last visit had been cleared away - the Princess briefly wondered whether they had cleaning fairies in the Mana Holyland as well. An eerie sort of silence had settled over the isle, where previously it had been vibrant and alive with the hum of insects, birds twittering in the trees and those loathsome silktails attacking anything that moved. There wasn't even the barest breath of breeze.

"Creepy," Hawk commented. Behind them, Flammie seemed to be settling herself on the ground for a bit of a nap. That was the best sign they could ask for that things were safe for the time being. Despite her size and fierce attack on Dangaard, the white dragon tended to be as timid as they come.

The Fairy revealed herself again and began to float ahead of them. "I did tell you that the Mana Holyland would be empty now that the Sword is gone. I don't expect that we'll have any trouble."

Hurrying after the Knight and accompanying parasite just the same, Angela replied, "That's good to hear and all, but where exactly IS this fabled statue?"

"The Holyland is a big place after all," Hawk reminded her.

"The Fairy and I know where it is," Duran assured them as they penetrated deeper into the isle. There was no response to that; it felt very uncomfortable to break the stillness that had settled over the Holyland. Last time, they hadn't noticed, but this time it was really feeling like they were intruding on holy ground.

The trio and a half continued their quiet trek through the ancient ruins and trees for some time. Well, Duran couldn't really walk quietly in those heavy boots of his with all that armour, but no words were exchanged. Even the Fairy, perched atop her precious Knight's shoulder, refrained from her usual lectures.

After what seemed like hours of walking, Angela's patience was at its end, and she didn't particularly care if she was breaking the serenity anymore. "Are you SURE you know where we're going? We've been walking forever! I could swear it didn't take this long to get the Mana Tree itself!"

"Of course we know!" the Fairy protested indignantly.

"We passed by it on our way to Mana Tree last time," Duran explained, pushing aside the thick foliage that was growing over the barely-visible path. At least those silktails were well and truly gone.

"Hawk and I didn't see it on our way," the Princess pointed out pragmatically. Her sense of direction wasn't terribly keen, but it was still telling her that they were going on an awfully meandering path.

"You probably took a different route," the Fairy sniffed. "Seeing as you did it without the proper guidance."

"We had the Elementals guiding us!" She sent a brief belated thank you into the back of her mind to the Elementals, relatively certain that the nosy Guardians would hear it. They were at least useful, unlike the glorified pixie.

Huffing, the tiny deity shook her glowing head in exasperation. "Just have faith in Duran, would you?"

It was rather hard to summon such profound faith in the Knight, however, when he seemed to randomly decide to abandon them in favour of his quest. Even with her newfound revelation that she was rather thoroughly over her infatuation with him, she STILL smarted from being left behind in Jad - it was quite possibly the very first time in her entire life she'd been stood up. Then he didn't even have the good manners to remember her name later! And then there was that entire matter of when he'd headed off to the Mana Tree all by himself.

Like it or not, the only time Hawk had really left her side for any length of time since Jad was when she had gone to Astoria, and he'd at least been good enough to give her warning to leave there as soon as possible - thus saving her from the Beastmen's attack. And the thief, as capable of being as utterly insensitive as a rock as he was, still made the effort to come talk to her and ask whether she was going to keep travelling with them and why - more than once, too. Duran hadn't even asked. At the time, she'd simply taken it as respect for her privacy, but it had felt, she admitted, rather good to know that at least the thief cared enough to ask. Even if he did have a funny way of expressing it at times.

Angela suddenly faltered mid-step, eyes widening in horror and realisation.

Dear Goddess. She wasn't sure when exactly it had happened, but somewhere along the line, she'd not only lost her interest in Duran, but had fallen in love with Hawk.

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Tada! Please review. 


	44. The Start of a Beautiful Relationship

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter is short and uninteresting. You were warned.

Author's note: Wow, I find myself wondering what deity I managed to piss off THIS time. The only conclusion I am able to arrive at is that it was a powerful one. Blame this nameless deity for the unscheduled delay in this update – I only barely managed to post 'Elementary' before the usual array of events and problems sprang up with almost uncanny timing. Coincidence? I think not. Anyhow, this chapter only has the class change, and is pretty short – still not entirely happy with it, but I figured that I'd better not keep all of you waiting any longer. Your votes, made a good year and a half ago, are finally put to good use. Usual thanks for being so patient!

Response to the Reviewers:

Slash, The Ironman: LOL, indeed. But it's always welcome.

Sorrow in Shadow: Good question. Those of you who know your SPCs will already know that the main track associated with Magical Kingdom Altena is entitled 'Witchmakers'. I went from there. Nothing terribly profound behind it I'm afraid, but it seemed to fit.

Ren: I understand your fear, but even if the updates get bad (as they have been), I will not abandon this fic; I read fanfiction too and nothing irritates me more than an unfinished story. I'd even rather a rushed ending or huge waits between updates than for any story to be discontinued. Lol, sorry for the scare all the same. (Boo!)

Shin-Ryu Warrior: Hey, thanks! Though I'd certainly hope that people saw that coming, as I announced it in the Author's Note of the very first chapter. (Looks) Over 600 reviews! When did THAT happen?

Nightmares Hell Queen: Mwa ha ha! The virus spreads!

Thousand Winds: Yeah, I noticed that too. I guess it's been so long for some of the people who've been here since the start that they'd forgotten. A PUVS Union. My worst fears have just been realised. (If you're VP, who's the President?) Thanks for the review!

Lone Ronin: Cue cheesy romance music.….. hoo boy, now I'm getting into territory I've never tried before. Thanks as always for the review.

Truewind: LOL, I always love your reviews – you've joined the cartel of super-observant reviewers I have to keep my eye on. Though it does keep me from becoming too lazy :). Thanks for your review on Elementary, too – some really good criticism was in there, so it was much appreciated.

Staci/Nadia: A mammoth review! Thanks, but take the chance to rest up – re-reading the whole fic in two days… I'm not sure whether to take it as a compliment or commit you to a mental asylum. Vend vend!

'o': Heh heh. Blame FF net and their new formatting. I like to keep people guessing, even if it means deviating from the game script a little…. Or a lot…. Urgh, don't bring back the memories of growing items in that inn!

Freeloader1: Thanks! Good luck on your own studies. SD3 remixes rule!

Kitty: I was considering doing so already, actually, but it'd probably only be a couple of the Rune Master spells. Heck, I ignore the game half the time already, what's one more discrepancy? Thanks for the review.

Soriyu: Yeah, it took me long enough, didn't it? Your fanart link didn't show up, by the way. Most links on the review page don't. Ja ne!

Mirowood: Oooh, a new SD3 fic? Once my internet is working again (borrowing a friend'sfor the time being)I'll have to go check that out. Writing Duran as intelligent? Where's the fun in that? I'll have to read it just to see how it could be done. Good luck!

Wings of Lead: I think I had far too much fun with the class change items, but I'm glad so many people seemed to like it. There's a lot of reasons why I didn't give any more background on Hawk's acquisition of the Bad Luck Die, though I won't go into them here. Your reading into the details is very insightful, though Duran actually had no idea how much his family heirloom was worth. Thanks for your review – it was mighty interesting indeed.

Spork EmpressOfJapan: New reviewer, thanks!

Cookie Pixie: Indeed, academia is evil like that. Sadly, this chapter isn't as good as the last one, and is a fair bit shorter, but I hope you'll like it all the same. Heh heh, that was my favourite part too, you have a tendency of always picking it out. Oh, by the way, I posted your request fic. It was a bit experimental, and didn't really work out, but... um... tada! Thanks for such an in-depth review, it was awesome.

Just Call Me Angels: No no, for once I was actually being sincere, strange though that is. See – more of your damned accurate observations! It's like you read my mind or something! Anyhow, you might just get your wish yet ;). Thanks for the review.

WaterDragonerS: No worries – I'm once again ridiculously late, so if anyone should apologise it's me. Your reviews are always welcome.

LunaRyuu: I winced when I looked at the date of this review. Sorry!

TheOneAndOnlyT: I tried! Honestly! Ah well, thanks for your review, and your patience!

Hmm, that was longer than it should have been, given that this is a pretty short chapter. Ah well. I've kept you waiting long enough. On with the chapter!

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 44 – The Start Of A Beautiful Relationship

By Sinnatious

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It turned out that Duran did in fact know where he was going; they arrived unharmed at the statue of the Mana Goddess not much later. Not that Angela registered most of their journey there. She'd spent the entire time walking on autopilot, gazing dazedly off into nothingness as she struggled to comprehend this latest revelation.

Her first instinct was to deny it; in a violent and highly destructive way if possible, involving lots of Dark Forces and Fire Balls. But, she realised with unease, she'd already been doing that for quite some time.

When! When had this happened! How could she go and fall for a desert rat like that without even knowing about it!

Certainly, when she'd first met him, he'd been nothing but a scoundrel and annoyed her to no end. Eventually, she'd had to admit that he was damn useful in a fight, and later, begrudgingly accept that his less-than lawful skills were both impressive and vital to their survival. Even harder to acknowledge had been the fact that the Navarrian had traits in his personality that she actually liked. In the end, Duran's good looks had been about the only thing going for him.

She shook her head in an effort to clear it, but it didn't seem to make any difference. Eventually, her vision focused on the glowing blob that seemed to be shrieking something at her.

The FAIRY! Goddess damn it if that gnat tried to read her thoughts now!

"Angela, are you listening?" The Fairy was complaining. "This is important!" Phew, the annoyance was just lecturing again. She was safe for now.

"It's hardly complicated," Hawk interrupted, waving her off. "It's a lot like the first class change, right? Just with the extra item as a sacrifice."

"Mostly," she replied warily, then continued on to explain, "It might hurt a bit. The second class change was sealed for a reason. It's very dangerous to take on that amount of power in such a short amount of time, and those who change before they are ready often lose control of it and are killed, or if they're lucky, crippled."

"Such an uplifting thought."

"What do the items do again?" Duran asked eagerly, not at all deterred by potential failure.

"They'll dissolve the seal as well as help guide you in crafting your power," explained the Fairy patiently. "It's complicated Mana theory. Normally I would explain it to you, but we hardly have the time. Who wants to go first?"

Angela snapped out of her daze, looking at the Mana statue in front of them for the first time. At first, it seemed unremarkable; it looked just like every other statue of the Mana Goddess she'd seen in various temples and castles. The only visible difference was that this one was much older and the base seemed to be inscribed with some ancient language, no doubt from the time when these ruins were still new.

"Ladies first," Hawk offered the Delvar.

"Uh, r-right," she stuttered. This was a cataclysmically bad idea. She could hardly concentrate enough to make sense of what was going on, much less summon the sort of focus required for class changing!

The Knight smiled at her encouragingly. "Good luck, Angela."

"Thanks," she muttered, moving to stand in front of the statue. Uncertain of what exactly to do, she stepped up to the statue, held out the Forbidden Book in her hands and closed her eyes. Still without a weapon, she opted instead to use the book as her concentration point this time. Stubbornly, she tried to shove away her conflicting thoughts of Hawk and focus entirely on her own energy as well as the precious book held in her hands that seemed to be growing warm.

"Concentrate! Concentrate harder!" the Fairy's voice floated to her, as though from a far-away place. Mild irritation sprung up at the intrusion, and suddenly the calm, warm build up of Mana spiked and threatened to rage out of control. Gasping, Angela clamped down on all of her magic control, trying to gather her magic like she did whenever she used her Star Attack, struggling to pay attention only to the Forbidden Book still in her grasp; her hands clutching it so tight her knuckled were turning white. The Book felt like it was burning in her grasp one instant, and the next, it seemed to crumble to ash in her hands, and the Mana energy spiked again, testing the Princess's control. It seemed dark and furious, chaotic and turbulent, but this time, Angela instinctively welcomed it with open arms. It reminded her of how it felt when she used Shade's power or a particularly potent fireball. The sensation was familiar, and the moment she recognized it, the Mana seemed to calm some, back towards more manageable levels. Startled with the realisation, Angela instead tried to loosely hold the magic and energy bubbling through body, rather than stringently control it. The Mana spiked painfully again, but she simply grit her teeth and let herself sink into the magic. She NEEDED this power.

When the energy seemed to reach its peak, reminding her acutely of the first class change, she was perhaps expecting a blinding light or a sudden release of pressure. If anything, though, it was the opposite - the Mana swelled painfully one last time, and she found herself falling into an abyss of darkness.

It seemed to be forever later, though it was likely only a few minutes, when awareness returned to the Delvar. Blinking her eyes to clear away the fog, the Princess bit back a groan as she rolled over on the hard, uneven ground. It felt like Flammie had decided to tap-dance on her body, and had invited a few of the God-Beasts along for good measure. Had the class-change worked? Or was the image of the Mana Holyland swirling in front of her eyes an indication that fate had finally caught up with her?

She was hungry, tired and sore, most of which she didn't usually equate with the afterlife, and a moment later, she became aware of the power thrumming in her veins, creating an odd warming effect. The class change! Had it worked!

Finally, she noticed the Fairy and her two companions looking at her worriedly. When her eyes landed on them, the Fairy snorted. "As I guessed. A Magus."

"How can you tell?" Duran asked curiously. "She hasn't cast any spells yet."

"More Mana theory. I'll explain it later," the tiny deity replied. Angela and Hawk exchanged a brief glance - it seemed more like their half-pint companion was merely beginning to avoid explaining complicated things to the slow-witted Knight. It did get tiring after a while. The Fairy turned her bright gaze onto the Princess. "The last known naturally occurring Magus took the wrong path when searching for the source of magic. Instead of tapping into pure Mana of the Goddess, she tapped into the chaotic unstable Mana that fuels the God Beasts and the darker powers of the Elementals."

Angela groaned, holding a hand to her head. "No wonder I have such a huge headache."

"You alright there, Angie?" Hawk asked, amber eyes focusing on her in concern. "You had us worried when you just passed out like that. And you looked like you were in considerable pain."

She didn't know how to react to the thief anymore. Should she just act as she normally did around him? Should she be at least civil? Should she collapse sobbing into his arms?

"So much power..." she rasped out, struggling into a sitting position. "It's ten times more than what the first class change felt like."

"It isn't really," the Fairy corrected her. "It was just a little too much for your system to handle. Your challenge will now be learning to develop your potential and control the power that the second class change has gifted you with. I recommend you develop your skills quickly. The powers of a Magus are rumoured to cause calamities when not properly controlled."

"You look different, Angela," the Knight observed, not paying any attention to the glorified insect that continued to warble on in the background.

Hawk nodded his agreement. "She's much more beautiful."

For the time being, it was perhaps best to pretend nothing had changed until she'd sorted out all of her conflicting emotions. Snorting her contempt, Angela rose shakily to her feet. "I was always beautiful. You just wouldn't recognise true beauty unless it slapped you in the face."

"I guess I won't know until you slap me, then," he replied good-naturedly before turning to the Forcenan, leaving Angela gaping like a rabite. "Shall I go next?"

Still staring at the Princess, Duran nodded his agreement. Shrugging, the Ranger withdrew the two innocuous looking dice and approached the statue. He juggled them in his hand experimentally, before holding them out in his fist and closing his eyes.

"Here goes nothing," he murmured.

A long silence ensued. The Fairy had ceased her lecturing and instead now fluttered about the Navarrian in nervous anticipation. To both her and Duran, it seemed like a long time before the thief did anything at all, when suddenly a grunt and the sudden tightening of Hawk's expression punctuated the eerie stillness. The dice he held in his hand seemed to glow before dissolving into ash, slipping through his fingers onto the ground below.

Now the thief's features were contorted in an expression of intense concentration as he gritted his teeth and stiffened. Angela's own muscles ached sympathetically at the memory. It was suddenly very easy to imagine that if she'd tried the change before the battles against the God-Beasts, her magic control and her stamina wouldn't have been honed enough to deal with that overwhelming tide of power. It could have crushed her, suffocating her until she lost all control and the magic would have lashed out, probably causing damage to herself and everything nearby.

"Concentrate!" the Fairy admonished again.

"Shut up, gnat!" Angela snapped, dearly wishing for a Fairy-swatter right then and there. "He can't concentrate with you yelling in his ear!"

The tiny deity sent her an indignant glare, but at least she fell silent. Again, there was no flash of light heralding the completion of the class change - Hawk merely began to sway before falling backwards onto the ground, apparently unconscious. Angela was quick enough to catch his head before it connected with the ground.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before the thief groaned and came to. He opened his amber eyes, staring blearily up into Angela's face. "Have I died and gone to the Holyland?"

Déjà vu. The now-Magus rolled her eyes. "Idiot. You're in the Holyland, but you're certainly not dead." She suddenly realised that she was holding the thief's head in her lap. Letting out an embarrassed squeak, she promptly stood up and scurried back a few steps, missing the short exclamation Hawk made as his head was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground. She struggled not to blush, desperately clinging to whatever dignity she had remaining - what was she, some kind of schoolgirl? Princess Angela of Altena did NOT squeak! What by the Goddess was Hawk DOING to her? He hadn't used some weird sort of powder or herb on her, had he? She doubted that the stuff she'd used on Duran was the ONLY such concoction in his collection.

Hawk pulled himself to his feet with a wince, as the Fairy fluttered around him in an appraising circle, looking strangely disappointed. "Not the Light Path after all. A Rogue."

"Neat," was his only reply as he rubbed his neck. The Princess risked a good look at him, trying to identify how the Fairy could tell with just a simple glance, but instead, she just found herself staring, slightly slack jawed.

Angela was now acutely thankful that she'd gone first. Because if she'd had to watch Hawk's class change before her own, she'd not be able to concentrate on anything at all.

The Navarrian was different in a manner that was difficult to put her finger on. Admittedly, he had always been handsome in his own way; it wasn't quite the traditional sort of appeal that Duran's blue eyes, muscles and strong features held, but it was still alluring, and maybe even a little exotic. Now... well, she just couldn't take her eyes off him.

She gave herself a mental slap, quickly shutting her mouth and tearing her eyes away, to focus instead on the Fairy, who was giving her customary post-class-change speech.

"Rogues aren't terribly common - they tread a grey path, known for looking out for themselves and using any means necessary to get the job done. The last one that I can recall any tales of destroyed an entire village during the night just to get at one enemy." No wonder the Fairy seemed so disapproving. "They're known for their trickery, and usually can use Tree and Moon spells. This at least explains why Luna and Dryad seem to like you so much," the Fairy added as an afterthought.

"That's fascinating," Hawk replied nonchalantly as he dusted himself off. "But if that's all you have to say about that, and Angela's finished checking me out, then maybe we should let Duran do HIS class change."

"I was NOT checking you out!" the Magus denied, feeling her face growing hot.

"No, no, Angie, it's quite okay. I understand that many women have trouble resisting my charm."

Duran, in the mean time, had already approached the statue with his Paladin's Proof, and was initiating his own class change, oblivious to his two travelling companions arguing in the background. At the Fairy's shush, the two fell silent, Hawk grinning at nothing in particular and Angela with her nose in the air, still watching the cheeky thief out of the corner of her eyes. The Navarrian, she had begun to realise, remained an enigma after all this time. He'd been different from every other male she'd tried to seduce over time. Ladies'-man-wanna-bes were common enough, but the only way she knew how to deal with those was with a good cane thwacking. She'd never actually tried to seduce one before.

Hawk was still male, though, right? And all that flirting he did with her meant that he was interested, right? So really, if she were correct in her revelation that she had, against all odds, fallen for the thief-now-Rogue, her usual flirting methods would be all she needed to initiate some sort of relationship. It her mind, that was the next natural step.

Then why did she feel so uneasy about it? She hadn't become shy, had she? Maybe Duran's blatant ignorance of her come-ons had affected her self-esteem more than she thought. Either way, did she even want to mess it up? Things with Hawk had been so simple up until now, for the most part. He was an annoying ladies-man-wanna-be who had been intruding on her private time with Duran, but was to be endured because he was useful and shared some short-term goals. Recently, he'd become more of a comrade, though he still held his previous titles. She'd never tried to seduce a comrade before. It had the potential to get messy.

The thought had settled in her mind, though. Princess Angela of Altena never let a man out of her sights once she'd decided on him - even if it was for nothing more than a one-night stand. Duran was the one big oblivious fish that she eventually had to let get away. She was not, however, going to make the same mistake with Hawk. She couldn't dally. Who cared if the middle of a war with the God-Beasts was a bad time to be pursuing relationships? There was no telling what could happen over the next couple of weeks, or what might happen after their task was complete. The Navarrian had a tendency to appear and disappear on whim, and while it was usually for nothing more than a few hours at a time, she was suddenly afraid that he might just vanish without a word one day and she'd never see the desert rat again. This was an opportunity she had to seize while she could.

The Magus had been so intent on sorting out her feelings and thoughts that she'd not paid any attention to Duran's class change at all, her inner debate only being interrupted when she was temporarily blinded by a bright flash of white light. What the-? There hadn't been any flash of white light for her and Hawk's class change!

When she'd managed to blink the spots out of her vision, the scene had changed drastically. Duran was sprawled out on the ground with the Fairy was buzzing over him in excitement.

"A Paladin! I knew that Duran, at least, would take the pure path of Light!"

"Ooog," was the Forcenan's eloquent response.

"The Paladin - a fighter who fights for the weak! Just like your ancestor, Duran! You're a true Mana Knight, dedicated so purely to the moral path of Light! I always knew your sword would banish the darkness and purify-"

It was at this point that Angela quickly tuned the shiny gnat out again, more than a little peeved that the Fairy was talking down to them just because she and Hawk treaded a path towards darker powers. It wasn't like it made them evil or anything! Either way, the Fairy's shining star of a hero in question was pulling himself to his feet, and while she admitted that he did seem more radiant and possessing of a strength she had not noticed before, she didn't encounter anything like the pull of attraction she'd encountered when laying eyes on Hawk. It could get distracting in battle.

The Navarrian slapped Duran on the back companionably, the Forcenan being the one to wince for a change. "Congratulations, Duran, knew you could do it! Those God-Beasts better be watching out for us now!"

With a tentative grin at his companion then a brighter one at Angela, the young knight straightened and took on a determined stance. "That's right! We WILL rid the world of the God-Beasts! Thanks for your help, Fairy."

"It was nothing - it's what I'm here for after all," the Fairy replied bashfully, though her glow brightened significantly at the praise.

"Feh. She didn't do anything except yell 'Concentrate!' in our ears," scoffed the Magus.

"Hey! If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even have known this statue existed, or how to break the holy seal! Then you'd be in a sorry state for your next God-Beast battle!"

"Whatever," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. The power thrumming beneath her veins occupied too much of her attention to bother with the usual petty squabbles with the Goddess's emissary at this point in time. She could understand Hawk and Duran's newfound optimism; the power itself gave her confidence she'd been lacking of late, even if she consciously knew she wasn't yet capable of properly controlling it. "I still want to pick up a new cane before we go running into any fights with God-Beasts, though."

"Hn. Where are we going to find one that can hold up where your ancient treasure failed?" Hawk asked. "Canes that high quality don't turn up all that regularly on the black market."

"What about those merchant cats? I noticed that they had canes last time," Duran suggested.

Angela was forced to reign in her exasperation. "I keep telling you, Duran! They're travelling merchants! They'll just rob you blind!"

"But this mythril sword is top notch, and those healing water things seemed to work too," the Paladin protested.

"I'd still like to know where they're getting that kind of merchandise from," Hawk added with only the faintest of scowls. "Even Nikita doesn't sport those kind of goods, and he's supposed to be the top of his game."

The Princess's next argument died on her lips, and she eventually just threw her hands up in the air in defeat. "Fine! I'll just make do without the cane until we come across the weirdos! Haven't really been using the damn thing much recently anyway." Especially considering that whacking Hawk with it wasn't really an option anymore.

"Are you sure, Angela?" Duran asked worriedly.

"Of course I'm sure. Now, let's stop wasting time and get going! This has taken over half the day already!" She announced, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently, as if daring them to disagree with her.

There was a brief silence before the Fairy huffed impatiently. "Oh come on, you don't want to argue with a Magus, do you?"

"I'm thinking," Hawk replied.

Angela's face suddenly broke into a wicked grin. Even if she'd decided to stop attacking the thief with staff, she wasn't quite ready to remove all of the... 'magic' from their relationship just yet. Especially not when she'd just earned her brand new fancy title as a Magus.

"Then think fast! MEGA SPLASH!"

The Princess decided that this was going to be the start of a beautiful relationship indeed.

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Please review. Next chapter is already well under way, but if I were you, I'd have long since stopped believing me. It's within your rights. 


	45. Uncharitable Thoughts

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.

Author's note: I managed to put that brief Easter break to some good use in finishing off this chapter! Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Writing style still seems a little bit off to me in this one, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that. Next couple of chapters should be fun to write. Thanksto everyone who's sticking with this and still reviewing after all this time!

Response to the Reviewers:

Feyenal Dragon: Or should I be calling you Demonic Dragon now? I'll do my best!

Soriyu: Yeah, that WAS pretty sadistic of me, sorry. There will be lots more Hawk and Angela romance (or what passes for it in this fic) from now on. I'll also probably deviate some more from the comedy aspect of the story and more on the drama and romance, too. No, my Inbox is gloriously empty. Do you remember to chuck a .au on the end?

Just Call Me Angels: I don't know if it's about granting your wishes so much as you just being psychic. Heh heh heh, Angela's starting to get a little desperate after so many months of abstention…. Thanks for the review!

j0: j0! This one's at least a little bit longer. Thanks for the review!

Thousands Winds: Yup, the long-awaited arrival of reasonable weather. Spring there nice? No way, I'm not promoting this PUVS union more than absolutely necessary. I'd be lynched in no time if you guys picked up enough numbers!

Nightmares Hell Queen: (insert evil laugh in your choice of spelling here). Aww, you guys just got spoilt with those big monster twenty page chapters I was spitting out for a while there. Thanks for the review!

Tenshi No Akuma: Actually, I don't know what that button does either, let me know, okay? (Who can resist clicking a new button anyway?) Glad to be of some service.

Me: New reviewer? Or did I review myself in a schizophrenic episode? Wooooo…..

LunaRyuu: Not much better, but a small improvement is better than none at all, right? …..Right?

Slash The Ironman: Thanks! (What else can one say to that?)

Shin-Ryu Warrior: Hey, thanks, that was a mighty uplifting review. The standard has dropped quite a lot since the beginning of the story, but I'm glad that you guys all still read it (and hopefully like it).

Mirowood: Feh, everyone's an amateur to start off with! As they say, absolutely nobody is qualified for their job on their first day of work. Thanks for the compliment all the same. Ancient? Yes…. That will be fun to introduce. Keep writing yourself! The SOM section needs more fics! More, I say! Cat food XP.

TheOneAndOnlyT: Argh! All of you psychic people out there! Indeed. Lots of action in the next couple of chapters, especially seeing as there's only three God-Beasts left (and several villains… and all of those character centric chapters…. Ah hell.)

Cookie Pixie: Woot, thanks! An awesome review, as always. You can rest assured that I hate excessive sap and fluff with a passion, so any truly sugary moments of romance will be downplayed – the misleading was intentional, but I'm still surprised you picked up on it. Three God-Beasts left… guess I can't get out of writing those battles. Done any more on 'Snippets' recently?

Okay, enough from me – on with the chapter!

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 45 – Uncharitable Thoughts

By Sinnatious

* * *

After a surprisingly restful nap in the Mana Holyland, the trio had finally returned to their white dragon sleeping in the same clearing they'd landed in, who had been none too happy to be awoken from her own unscheduled rest. That brief tussle with death aside, the newly changed trio and their somewhat annoying self-appointed guardian were now well on their way to Valley of Flames and the God-Beast of Fire hopefully ensconced within.

"What's the plan of attack?" the Fairy yelled over the roaring wind.

"Since when have we ever needed a plan?" Hawk yelled back. Angela, in the meantime, was clinging onto the thief for dear life, and since her revelation, was for the first time enjoying the perilous ride on the back of their super-fast dragon. She clutched at the thief's shirt, pausing when she thought she felt something sharp. It certainly never looked like the thief could possibly keep anything hidden in such a form-fitting shirt, but from experience she knew otherwise. Thankful that no one could see her blush (perhaps Riesz's condition was contagious), she briefly wondered if perhaps her infatuation with the Rogue had begun on that very day, when her daring plan to get some action from Duran brutally backfired.

"We're over the desert!" Duran reported.

Already? For once she actually wished the overgrown kitten had further yet to go.

"Hey, isn't that those merchant cats down there?" Hawk yelled out as they neared the entrance to the Valley. "We can get you a new cane after all, Angie!"

"That's suspiciously convenient," 'Angie' murmured as the white dragon made her haphazard descent. She was beginning to feel as though the two cat merchants were stalking them in a similar manner to Carlie. Though they were slightly less annoying. And less dangerous. And less terrifyingly cute.

In a routine that was quickly becoming all too familiar, the white dragon set down by the two merchants setting up their blankets, throwing up a miniature dust storm with several powerful wing strokes.

Once the air cleared, the grey merchant began his customary sales spiel, not at all deterred by the fact that he was now covered in a thin layer of sand.

"-Cough cough- Ah, our best customers! How fare you, noble travellers? Could we perhaps interest you in some of our wares on this fine Summer day? I assure you that we carry only the finest of herbs and weaponry, at a competitive price! Why, we can almost guarantee that you'll not find this kind of quality merchandise anywhere else!"

"Yes, yes," Angela impatiently interrupted, trying to resist the urge to hop up and down on the hot sand that burnt her feet even through the soles of her new(er) shoes. "Spare me the hype. What do you have in the way of staffs or canes?"

"Ah, we have several, though if you are looking to upgrade from your previous one-" The Princess spared a moment to be impressed, and maybe just a little disturbed, that the merchant had bothered remembering what her Ancient Cane had looked like. "We only have two that might service your needs. Both are one-of-a-kinds, made by famous weaponsmiths long since dead! This one, dubbed Ceryeceon after the beast it slew, may look like a simple wooden cane but has highly magical properties. A fine weapon - please, feel free to look closer!"

The Magus inspected the simple looking piece of wood with a critical eye, running a gloved hand over its smooth surface. Though it chafed her to admit it, the merchant spoke truly of its properties - it could probably channel even more magic than her previous weapon had been able to, but could it truly handle the new level of power thrumming in her veins now? She dared to imagine that if she attempted an average Star Attack now, it would be twice as powerful as the one she finished off Fiegmund with. "What's the other one?"

The merchant was hurriedly unwrapping a long, thin, black staff from a bolt of silk. It looked to be made of some sort of mineral or metal, with a ring of rubies inset at both ends. "This one is quite old, but still in good condition! Like new, even! Its true name is long lost to us, but the one whom we acquired it from referred to it as the Fairy-Swatter."

The Fairy suddenly let out an undignified squeak, having left the safe confines of Duran's head at some point. "Clenunnus Cane!"

Angela's eyes gleamed mischievously as she reached out for the weapon, mentally thanking the Goddess for her luck. Her mind had already been made up the minute she heard the name and the Fairy's reaction, but the cane truly was good quality - durable, heavier than the Ceryeceon, and most importantly, didn't look like it was prone to splintering. "This one. Without a doubt."

The grey merchant cat was almost glowing with the success of his sale. "That will be 32,000 Luc."

Oh. She'd forgotten that they'd have to pay for it. Did they even have any money to pay the pair of highway-robbing sales cats? As far as the Princess could recall, they'd exchanged almost all of their money with the travelling merchants in their last transaction, and there certainly hadn't been any opportunity to acquire new funds since. They hadn't really required it, seeing as they'd recently taken to skipping out on the bill at inns.

Hawk was gnawing on the bottom of his lip while Duran blinked at the outrageous price that outdid the cost of even his Mythril Sword. The Fairy was protesting vocally, seeming to forget that there were others than the usual trio present, but the two merchant cats were thankfully unfazed by the hyperactive miniature deity. "Far too much. Even if it's one of a kind, it's old and you don't have any background information on the merchandise. Highly suspect and bad practice," the Rogue piped up. "Anything more than 20,000 is unreasonable. Good luck selling it to anyone else." The Navarrian made to turn his back and walk away.

Both Duran and Angela were about to voice their protests when the merchant called out, "Ah, the good sir has a point. But do not throw this rare weapon away so lightly! I see that your need for it is great, so I shall be generous, and I'll round the price down to 30,000. You think this fair, noble warriors?"

The Princess sighed and sat back on her heels as the now-customary bartering between con-artists took place. Duran mimicked her a moment later. She didn't really know what Hawk was up to, seeing as they didn't have even a thousand Luc to barter with, much less twenty or thirty thousand, but by now she'd taken to trusting the wily desert rat in these matters.

Hawk and the merchant haggled the price for a little while, Angela politely giving a cursory glance over the wares of the pink cat person, who was starting to look rather bored.

Finally, the Navarrian must have snapped, because he straightened and pointed a single tan finger at the startled Altenan Princess. "Do you realise who your customer is! Not only is she the crown Princess of the Magical Kingdom of Altena, but she's a fully-fledged Magus, with the power to flatten the entire Oasis Village of Deen with one spell if she wanted to!"

That received her a pair of startled glances. Even if she knew Hawk was grandstanding - she certainly hadn't yet tried any spells that could flatten a village - the royal beauty did her best to look as dark and menacing as possible, adjusting her gloves with a casual sort of malice.

"W-well, in that case, the very best I can offer you is a price of 25,000. I cannot go any lower," stammered the merchant.

Appearing to think it over, Hawk finally relented. "25,000 is fair... IF you throw in some of those vials of healing water and that bar of chocolate."

"Um, Hawk," Angela muttered, trying to get the thief's attention, to no avail.

"A deal! It has been a pleasure doing business with you, sir," the merchant replied, handing over the goods in exchange for... WHERE DID HAWK GET ALL THAT MONEY!

"Your Clenunnus Cane, dear Angie," the Navarrian said with a cocky grin, handing the weapon over to her.

The Princess never was one to pass up an opportunity. She flung her arms around the thief with a squeal, pressing up closer than was really necessary. "Thank you so much, Hawk! It's beautiful! How ever can I repay you?" She fluttered her eyelashes for extra effect.

To her surprise, though, a moment later she was holding nothing but air. Hawk was walking away, casually calling back over his shoulder, "Anything for a pretty girl!" She glared at his retreating back. When had he moved! It appeared that as a rogue Hawk was even more slippery than he was as a ranger.

Duran bade a polite farewell to the two merchants before hurrying after his two companions. The Magus had shrugged off the incident quickly enough in favour of giving her new Clenunnus Cane a few practice swings, greatly enjoying the nervous glances the shiny gnat kept sending her way. She had to find the history on this supposed 'Fairy Swatter' sometime; it could be the most fun she'd had in ages.

There was still the question of how exactly they'd been able to afford the weapon, though. Angela waited until they were at the entrance to the Valley of Flames before she leaned over to the thief, making a point of showing off her cleavage a little more than normal, and whispered, "Where exactly did you get that money? I thought we were out."

Flashing a quick grin at her, he replied, "Why, that's easy, dear Princess. Who were the nearest rich merchants?"

There was a long silence, before the Fairy, obviously feeling left out after not speaking for a while, piped up, "You stole from the merchants' own pockets then gave their money back to them!"

"Well... most of it."

Apparently that was shock enough to render the Goddess's emissary speechless as they entered the Valley of Flames. Having been distracted up until now, Angela had taken the uncomfortable warmth of the Desert of Scorching Heat in stride, hardly even noticing it. At first, she'd supposed that her tolerance might have risen with her class change, much in the same manner her stamina had improved with the change previous, but the blast of powerful hot air that greeted them at the cave entrance quickly destroyed that notion. How in the Underworld had they brought themselves to walk through there previously?

Perhaps the adrenaline from their fight with Bill and Ben and their rush to catch up with Bigieu had forestalled any notions of common sense. That's right... Angela looked over at Hawk in concern, only just now remembering what had transpired when they were last here. It had to be difficult to retread the path that led to Jessica's death.

"You okay there, Hawk?" she asked quietly, noticing the tenseness in his pose.

The thief took a deep breath and gave her a slightly shaky smile. Even a week ago, she probably would have been fooled by it, but ever since she'd started dedicating the majority of her attention the Navarrian, it didn't escape her notice so easily. "I'll be fine, Angie. Thanks for asking."

Giving a shrug, she reluctantly followed Duran into the fiery furnace. The cave mouth reminded her something of a God-Beast in itself; a giant monster's open maw breathing its hot, stinking breath over them. The flames still raged against all reason, burning without fuel in the various pits and chasms that were the main feature of the Valley. In fact, Salamando's Lair reminded her somewhat of what the Underworld itself might be like. The knowledge that they'd have to fight a God-Beast in these conditions was not even remotely appealing. In fact, if it wasn't for the confidence the second class change had gifted her with, she probably would have turned tail and bolted right then and there.

"Is it hot in here, or is it just you?" Angela asked the Rogue with a wink, before mentally slapping herself for using one of the most overdone pick-up lines in all of history.

"As much as I'd like to claim otherwise, Angie, it really is quite warm. It's the Valley of Flames, after all." Even Hawk, native to the desert as he was, couldn't manage to look cool and composed here.

"Let's not stay here any longer than necessary," Duran interjected before the conversation could proceed. The Paladin looked the most uncomfortable of them all in his heavy armour. "Where would the God-Beast be? It IS still in the Valley of Flames, right?"

"I'll go ask," the Fairy announced, flitting over to Angela.

No way was the shiny gnat getting in there now that she had all these new thoughts flying around in her head! The last thing she wanted was the Fairy getting more blackmail material! "Why come into MY head for it, you pesky insect!" She shook the Clenunnus Cane at the miniscule guardian threateningly.

Pouting, the tiny deity complained, "But your bond with Salamando is the strongest!"

"Then I'll ask him myself! Stay in Duran's head, you mind-reading snoop!"

With only the briefest of inquiries, Angela felt the familiar presence of Salamando spring forth from the back of her consciousness. 'Heya, Angie! What's got you all FIRED up!'

'Salamando,' she greeted warmly. 'We're after your God-Beast. Any advice?'

'Ah, Xan Bie. It won't have burned a path outta my caverns yet! It's probably in the deepest pit, just north of where the Stone used to be! I can give you a BLAZING short cut!'

She quickly relayed the details of the mental conversation to her two and a half companions, before leading the way to a fiery doorway that was hidden just off the path they had walked to the Mana Stone previously. As they approached it, the flames died out, leaving nothing more than a charred patch of ground to show that the barrier had ever been there.

'Thanks Salamando.'

'Anytime! Be sure to BLAST that God-Beast all the way to the Holyland and back!' The Elemental of Fire then faded back into a faint presence at the edge of her mind.

The Magus gave a smug look to the Fairy as they made their way along yet another rocky precipice. "Guess you're not so important after all, Fairy," taunted the Princess.

Folding her arms grumpily, her tiny counterpart muttered, "But I'm still more important than the Mana Sword," before swiftly vanishing back into Duran's head, hopefully for a good long while.

Angela felt uneasy pondering that for one long moment. It WAS true that the Goddess had ordered that saving the Fairy was the most important thing when the clumsy emissary had been kidnapped by Koren, and the Elementals had later reinforced that statement, but why exactly that was remained unanswered - in all of the hype about the God-Beasts, none of them had remembered to ask about it.

As usual, however, she was forced to put aside her musings in favour of fighting a much more immediate battle as they navigated the often treacherous rocky paths of the fiery caverns. This time, they had to deal with the Firedrakes, their presence obviously a side effect of all the unstable Mana in the area. Fortunately, with his boosted strength, Duran's Mythril Sword was more than capable of piercing their scaly hides. There were also the oddest armoured... ducks? When she questioned Salamando on them, the Elemental was strangely quiet, mumbling something about one of Undine's practical jokes going wrong. For practical jokes, they were annoyingly intelligent little creatures, but the three intrepid warriors soon settled on a routine of the Magus stunning them with an Ice Smash and Hawk slipping in to stab them through the cracks in their armour while they were dazed.

They continued this way for quite a while; it was a rough estimation, but half a day had probably passed by the time they arrived at what looked like the end of their current path. They'd encountered a couple of dead ends before, and at first glance the rocky plateau, mere metres above the height of the fire, appeared to be no different. "Not again!" Angela complained.

'Nope! This is it!' Came Salamando's brief exclamation from the back of her mind.

"In that case, where's the God-Beast?" she demanded. Hawk and Duran didn't pay her any attention; by now they'd become so used to at least one of them having a voice in their head that one-sided conversations seemed more common than two-sided ones.

Hawk shrugged carelessly. He'd been sour and silent for most of their journey through the Valley. The fire seemed to flare ominously, almost as if it was reflecting his mood.

In fact, it might have just been her imagination, but the heat of the cavern seemed to be increasing abnormally, to the point where Angela was already unconsciously calling Undine's magic to surround them in a slight cooling mist. Not that it was much help in this unnatural warmth. As soon as the thought entered her head, the cave seemed to rumble ominously, the ground trembling beneath their feet.

"What's happening?" Angela asked apprehensively, protectively clutching her staff closer to her chest.

"Watch out!" Duran yelled in warning, pulling his sword from its sheathe.

The alert came just in time as a dragon of fire sprung from the depths of the Valley of Flames, rushing towards them at an impossible speed. Hawk, despite his foul mood, was still clearly present of mind enough to dodge as it tore through where stood mere moments before.

This had to be Xan Bie. Honestly, these God-Beasts were all such drama queens - each one had managed to arrive in a flashier way than the last. What had Fiegmund been thinking, dropping from the ceiling like that?

The Magus took a brief moment to appraise their opponent. Salamando had done a surprisingly good job at containing the monster; the God Beast of Fire apparently hadn't managed to incorporate anything other than flames and heat into its body yet, roughly moulding several blazes of self-sustaining fire into the loose form of a legless dragon. The inferno surrounding the rocky plateau must have been the sole source of all of the creature's energy.

It swirled in front of them, seeming to size them up for attack. Angela really, really didn't like it when they did that. It usually meant something bad was coming.

Something like a hail of fireballs.

Running about madly, trying to dodge the flaming orbs of death that rained randomly down around them, the Princess covered Hawk's flank as he flung one of his throwing blades through roughly where the neck of this magical monstrosity ought to be. Simultaneously, Duran swung mightily through the midsection of the attacking beast, clearly hoping to slice it in two. Somehow neither were surprised, though both looked understandably annoyed, as both weapons passed harmlessly through the fiery creation. Their opponent seemed to grin at this - if it was at all possible for a being made of fire to grin.

"Angie, I think this is your cue," Hawk advised, still glaring at the beast.

"I have just the thing to take care of fire! ICE SMASH!" Angela called, bringing up Undine's magic.

The magical monstrosity howled in pain, dissolving for a moment, mere seconds before it re-materialized, flaming body if anything, seeming bigger. "Whaaaaaaat!"

"Angie, try again!" Hawk yelled, even as another fireball scorched the tips of his ponytail. Duran was still fruitlessly hacking at the beast.

"Ice Smash! Ice Smash!" She repeated, calling up the magic time and time again. It didn't seem to be doing a thing! She even threw in a Holy Ball and Evil Gate for good measure. Nothing! The dragon just kept rematerialising, and grinning with a wicked confidence at them.

"Ack!" the Princess tried to dodge the writhing and erratically whirling body of Xan Bie, then instinctually tried to bat away the lashing tail, cursing as her cane also passed through it ineffectually. She spent a moment being thankful that she'd chosen the metal cane as opposed to the wooden one, before gritting her teeth as the heat the God Beast's passage scorched her skin. The Magus was similarly grateful for the defensive charms and spells woven into her clothing that prevented it from catching fire - she wasn't such an exhibitionist that she favoured the idea of flinging off her flaming dress and fighting naked. Duran's cure magic cooled her in a soothing blue light moments later, and she instinctively checked her hair, cursing as she felt the singed tips. That was REALLY annoying. Now she was going to have to trim it! Where was she supposed to get that done? If Hawk's hair was anything to go by, they'd never even heard of hairdressers in Navarre!

Duran had finally given up on his sword, and was now just concentrating on pumping all of them with cure magic as the fireballs and lashing tail of the monstrosity became too think to dodge. How come nothing worked! What good was a class change if you couldn't figure out how to use it!

'Weakness, there must be a weakness...' the Delvar wracked her brain for anything she hadn't tried. Logically, she'd assumed that using Undine's ice magic against a creature made of fire would have made this short work, but all she'd really managed to do was make a lot of steam.

"Angie!" Hawk called out again, pointing behind their flaming doom. Squinting through the firelight, amidst the inferno that was the natural surrounding of the Valley of Flames she thought she spotted a single bright light, shining above everything else. It seemed to be coming from... some kind of stove? "That's where it's coming from! That's the source!"

Thank the Goddess for the Rogue's sharp eyes. "Keep it busy! I'm going to blast it to the Underworld!" She ran full-pelt towards the stove. She couldn't reach it from their little rocky plateau, but she only had to be close enough to use magic. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Hawk wasting some more knives, taunting the creature, distracting it from the Magus. Duran had returned once again to fruitlessly hacking at it with his sword. If nothing else, it was forging his blade.

Once in position, the Princess took a deep breath. All the wasted spells had made her tired, and she wasn't quite skilled yet at using Undine's highest level magic, so she was going to have to pour everything into this spell and hope for the best. That meant no missing! Again, she thanked the Goddess for providing her with such good target practice in Hawk. Hitting a still object ought to be a cinch.

"MEGASPLASH!"

The deluge of water and ice struck true, though with far more volume that originally intended. All three of them dropped to the ground, arms held over their heads as excess water sloshed over the rocky plateau and steam billowed above them. When the super-heated fog cleared, Angela was relieved to see that the God-Beast's odd choice of a core was mangled and the intense glow within had vanished. Moments later, the sickening sensation of dissipating corrupt Mana energy flowed overhead, assuring them that their task had been completed.

Slightly more unnerving was the fact that the Magus's Megasplash spell had not only extinguished Xan Bie, but most of the fires in the cavern as well. There were still several tongues of fire struggling to burn, but for the most part, the Valley of Flames was the coolest it had ever been.

Trying to remain nonchalant, the Princess dusted herself off, remaking casually, "That was certainly easier than last time."

Hawk and Duran gave her owlish looks. Admittedly the spell had been much larger than expected; she'd not yet grasped how to channel her new power, and still had the tendency to underestimate the amount of magic she was unleashing. The rest of the God-Beasts had better watch out.

Their return to the outside was almost anti-climatic. Walking back to the entrance of the Valley the mood was far lighter than when they had first entered, with Duran even attempting to engage in small talk not directly related to the mission for a change. Hawk was still in a bit of a mood, prompting Angela to watch him in concern - she refused to admit that she was so desperate as to descend to perving - as she tuned out the Paladin. Dear Goddess, the Forcenan said some stupid things sometimes. She even spared a few good minutes wondering how she'd been so forgiving for so long. It wasn't that Duran was terribly stupid, per se, but he certainly had a knack for stating the painfully obvious and being terribly naive. It was sort of cute, but seemed out of place on someone supposed to be a soldier. She mentally groaned as she realised that her newfound infatuation with Hawk had progressed so far that she was even longing for a genuine conversation with him, or at the very least some of the usual banter. What next, lurid fantasies? Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea...

So engrossed in her thoughts was she that the Altenan Princess hardly even noticed when they passed from the maze of fiery caverns back out into the Desert of Scorching Heat, climbing automatically onto Flammie's back as they made a short hop to Oasis Village Deen. They probably could have kept going on to the next God-Beast, but there was little point in exhausting themselves just yet, as there would no doubt be ample opportunity to do that later.

In fact, it wasn't until late that night, lying in one of Deen's slightly uncomfortable beds, that something finally managed to shake her from her introspection.

'WHAT! Angela, have you lost what little mind you HAVE!'

The Princess shot up in bed, grabbing her cane with lightning-fast reflexes before she realised that the voice had, in fact, come from within her own head.

'What happened! Such dirty thoughts! How long have you been in love with Hawk! HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS!'

Angela cursed loudly. The blasted mind-reading snoop of an insect knew!

...All those uncharitable thoughts must have finally pissed off the Goddess.

* * *

Coffee, anyone? 


	46. Tower of Inconvenience

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. This chapter for violence, I suppose. Additional warning: Chapter is long. For those easily dehydrated, perhaps refreshments are in order.

Author's note: I finally got me some full-time work: The upside of this is that I get to eat more regularly, and the downside is that I probably have a little less time for writing. I made this chapter a doozy because I expect delays in the next one, but just wanted to reassure everyone that I won't abandon this fic, seeing as speculation of my death pops up so often I start to feel like a criminal for living. Besides, I have too many ideas to quit just yet!

Response to the Reviewers:

Freeloader: Erm, I'm not so sure if you should be using this fic for any sort of reliable insight to the female mind, but that's up to you. You're correct that Tree and Moon magic is primarily in the realm of the Wanderer, more so than the Rogue, but I'm planning on taking a little creative license here and there as far as magic goes. Not a lot, mind you, but there will be some. Thanks for your review!

Sesshi: Wow, new reviewer! Hi! Um… what else can I really say after such huge compliments other than one really massive 'thanks!' (Imagine that the 'thanks' is the size of a small city.)

JamesThePhox: (Stretches memory) I remember all of my reviewers, however vaguely. Thanks for dropping a line! (Skulks off with all the other foxes.)

Shin-Ryu Warrior: Thanks!

Thousand Winds: You wish you could whistle too! I thought I was the only one! It is finally becoming temperate here. Converting Farenheit to Centigrade hurts my brain, so we'll leave it at the fact that I no longer have to put multiple fans around the computer to stop it from catching fire. Thanks for your review!

Slash, The Ironman: Yeah, I was short on material there, and couldn't resist the sheer cheesiness of it. Nothing else to say, except for the standard gratitude, which I'll leave you to fill in.

Lone Ronin: That explains my health, then. You and me both. Thanks for the review!

Bitter green-tea: That was the idea, but that level of stage anxiety wasn't supposed to be strong enough to elicit a physical reaction. Oops. You'll have to forgive the recent lack of Carlie. Writing her tends to make me violent, for some reason.

LunaRyuu: Hint received, though progress with Hawk and Angela is painfully slow at the moment. (Please don't kill me). I'll try and speed that up some to avoid the lynching.

Shade-Duelist: Greetings, Elemental of Darkness!

Cookie Pixie: Have to admit, that scene was tempting to write. A sequel to Elementary, hmm, it's an interesting idea, but I might leave that one be for the sake of my mental health. You'll just have to be a strategically placed reviewer next time I'm feeling generous. Thanks for an awesome review!

Soriyu: Patience, Soriyu, patience. Thanks for the link, again, that was super neat.

Just Call Me Angels: Wow, aren't you going to hate this chapter then? (Hides)

O-o: Yeah, the Fairy's been a little bit too back-seat of late. Still, I try to surprise you guys here and there, despite the many psychics hidden amongst the ranks. (Tries to sneak another update behind your back)

TheOneAndOnlyT: SOME fluff is unavoidable, but I'll try and keep it from being too sugary. Thanks for the approval. Lots of new attacks introduced this chapter, so I hope you enjoy that. Hey, I'm not going to validate any of your creepily accurate predictions – that's just giving stuff away! Such an awesome and insightful review; thanks a bunch!

H-Man: Everyone's getting so excited about the God-Beast of Darkness, but they haven't even killed Mispolm yet. (Shrugs) Admittedly, Zable Fahr is pretty darn cool.

Mirowood: Your questions about Dolan will now be answered! Any epic story involving a gender-confused dragon HAS to be good. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the review!

That's it from me, on with the chapter!

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 46 – Tower of Inconvenience

By Sinnatious

* * *

Angela, heir to the throne of the Magical Kingdom Altena, one-time showgirl, Magus extraordinaire and easily the best-looking girl at that particular inn, was extremely annoyed. 

Annoyance, in fact, barely even covered the depth of her emotions towards the Fairy at this particular moment. Livid, indignant rage was probably a little closer to reality.

The Fairy was pretty upset too, though likely for different reasons.

'You filthy rotten little SNEAK! When did you decide to drop into my head without my permission!'

The invasive mind-reading gnat in question appeared to have other things on her tiny little brain, however. 'HAWK? Of all the low-lifes you could have chosen from, you had to go fall in love with HIM!'

Now distracted from her original mission, the Princess redirected to defending her newfound infatuation. 'Hypocrite! At least he doesn't go nosing through people private thoughts!'

'Just their purses!'

'Exactly! What do you have against Hawk, anyway! I thought you were over the whole thief thing!'

'I... I... What about Duran!' she stammered.

'What ABOUT Duran? I'm through with that. The only thing that matters to him is Koren and being the Mana Knight! Besides, good looks can only get you so far.'

'Look who's talking.'

The Magus bristled, wishing dearly that the Fairy was on the outside where she BELONGED so that she could fire off the spells the tiny gnat deserved. 'I have a lot more going for me than good looks! That's just a bonus!'

'But... But..."

'This is none of your business! What does it matter to you?'

'I can't believe it! You just made a complete turnaround over the course of a couple of days!'

'Why are you so surprised, you little parasite!' she mentally snapped at the gnat after checking briefly that she wasn't forgetting herself and speaking her thoughts out loud. She hardly needed to broadcast her half of the conversation to where her two companions might hear. 'I thought you could read our minds at will!'

Angela paused, and then retraced that thought. The Fairy had been shocked upon the revelation. The Magus had been trying to keep it a secret by avoiding thinking about it whenever the tiny deity was outside of the safe confines of Duran's skull, but in all honesty she'd expected that the annoying guardian would have at least gathered a clue by now. Did this mean that the Goddess's emissary really couldn't read their minds?

...No, that couldn't be right. It was only a couple of days ago where the shiny insect was more or less finishing their sentences for them. Did that mean that the Fairy had somehow lost the ability?

'Fairy... you can't read our minds at whim anymore, can you?'

The brief silence that followed was all the confirmation she needed.

Gloating time. 'Ha! That's why you've been trying to get inside my head so much recently! You have to be in there to read my thoughts!'

'Oh, quit it! I've hardly visited your head at all recently!', protested the Fairy, then reluctantly went on to explain, 'Ever since the class change I can hardly pick up anything at all. You three have too much power now. When we first met I could read you guys like a book. After the first class change it took effort. Now it's next to impossible unless I'm visiting you.'

'I hardly consider this breach of privacy a visit,' the Princess noted dryly, still elated at the new advantage over the resident parasite.

'This isn't the issue! Your flighty emotions are the topic at hand! I've never before met a woman of such loose morals!'

'Hey! This woman of loose morals is helping you on your crazy quest to save Mana and destroy the God-Beasts at no personal benefit!' Angela directed the equivalent of a mental glare at her unwelcome resident. 'Might I add that if I hadn't been present we wouldn't have defeated either Fiegmund OR Xan Bie!'

'But you're just interested in Hawk because you haven't made any progress yet with Duran and he's the next most convenient male in the vicinity!'

'Why are you trying to change my mind!' she demanded. 'I thought you'd be happy about the fact that I'm no longer trying to taint your precious and pure Mana Knight!'

'I... well... this is a wholly inappropriate time to be pursuing a relationship!' the Fairy tried, changing tact.

'Since when have you ever seen me care about whether something is appropriate or not?'

The tiny deity gave the mental impression of throwing her miniscule arms up into the air in exasperation, muttering something along the lines of, 'Undine always said this would happen...'

Angela didn't want to know what that was about. 'I'm tired of this! I want to go to sleep! Go hang out in Hawk's head for a while, why don't you?' In retrospect, that was a bad suggestion, seeing as she doubted the tiny deity could keep her trap shut about this revelation. The last thing she needed was the Fairy spilling her guts to Hawk and ruining the delicate process of seduction.

'There's nothing delicate about your flirting,' the Fairy huffed. 'Besides, Hawk's won't let me in at the moment. Ever since he class changed, his reflexes are too quick - he always catches me before I get in.'

Angela spent a few minutes enjoying mentally taunting and laughing at the glorified insect, until the Fairy apparently couldn't take it anymore, and started to use her own traitorous thoughts against her.

'You'd better be nice or I'll tell Hawk! You wouldn't want to ruin your 'delicate process of seduction' would you!'

The Princess paused, then let her eyes drift over to the Clenunnus Cane resting against the bed. The threat was clear. Stalemate.

Silently, an uneasy truce was a formed, though how long it would last was anyone's guess. The terms were simple: if the Fairy kept Angela's secrets, the Magus would not swat her. A shame not all of her interactions with the tiny deity could be resolved in such a straightforward manner.

'This conversation is over,' the Princess announced her best 'heir to the throne' tone, 'I'm going to sleep.'

The Fairy seemed set on staying, perhaps in part for fear that the Magus might whack her the instant she left the safe confines of her host's head, so Angela did her best to ignore her and get some well-deserved rest before they headed off to the Moonlight Forest the next day. They only had seven or eight hours until sunrise, and she wasn't going to waste them on the annoying gnat.

Fortunately, the shiny insect in question was absent from her skull the next morning when she awoke, presumably having returned at some point to her beloved Paladin. After their comparatively easy fight against Xan Bie, they could enjoy breakfast at the inn without treating it as a last meal - it helped that the Fairy didn't buzz around their heads this time, apparently having been so spooked by the conversation the evening before that she didn't dare show face. They didn't even have to skip out on the bill, either, as Hawk had lifted enough money from the merchant cats to cover both the cost of the Magus's cane and living expenses for at least a couple of days. There were still no bathing facilities - Deen was even more dry and dismal than ever - but an impromptu Undine-sponsored shower took care of most of the grime, and Angela was pleasantly surprised to discover that only the very tips of her hair had been singed, so the unevenness was hardly noticeable at all.

The Princess was fed, rested, clean, and Fairy-free. Life was good. All she needed to do now was seduce the object of her affection and kill Koren, and all of her goals would be complete.

"Argh, it's so hot!" she complained once they were outside again in the harsh desert sun. Brightening, she latched onto Hawk's left arm. "You know, Hawk, you still owe me an ice-cream from that whole mess in Maia."

He slipped his arm out of the Princess's hold fluidly. "No way. Ice-cream is hard to steal. And where exactly do you think we'll find ice-cream in Oasis Village Deen!"

"Where else! There's no real point to having ice-cream in Altena!"

"But they can't even sell chocolate here because it keeps melting!"

"Haaaaaaaawk!" The cost of dignity was a small price to pay to get him on a date at this point in time.

Duran coughed pointedly, effectively interrupting them. "Shouldn't we head on to the God Beast of the Moon now?"

Giving up, Angela shrugged, "I suppose."

"Maybe we can get ice-cream afterwards in celebration," Duran offered kindly.

"Whatever," she dismissed. She'd just have to find another way to get some quality time with Hawk. It might be easier once they were out of the desert and his nerves weren't so much on edge. She was growing unsettled, though - if she didn't make some progress soon, she didn't know what she'd do. As far as she knew, there was only the God-Beasts of Moon and Wood left. After that, there was no telling what might happen. She still had time yet, but if saving Mana kept getting in the way like this, she'd be an old maid before she got anywhere!

"Where would the God-Beast be, do you think?" the Paladin wondered out loud, interrupting her train of thought.

"Luna says it's called Dolan," Hawk reported, even as he fished around for Flammie's drum. "And she doesn't think it'll be too far away from the Mana Stone there yet. We should probably just go straight to the Tower." Moments later, the odd drum was out. Flammie faithfully came when called, frightening the wits out of the inhabitants of Oasis Village Deen, and Angela was disappointed to find herself clinging onto Duran for the dragon ride for a change, with Hawk directing their overgrown kitten from the front. Strange to imagine, she thought woefully, that a mere week or two ago she would have gladly traded her Ancient Cane for such an opportunity.

If they needed any proof of the God-Beast's whereabouts, it was provided by Flammie's steadfast refusal to take them all the way to the Tower entrance. Instead, they found themselves unceremoniously dumped some distance away amidst a pack of wolves while their giant cowardly dragon made her escape.

"Stupid oversized flying kitten!" cursed the Magus as she slammed her metal cane down decisively on a wolf's skull, long past wincing at the painful 'crack' it made. Somewhere behind her there was a series of explosions, presumably the work of one of Hawk's traps. When exactly he had moved to set down the traps she'd not yet figured out; perhaps it was aided by some of his unaccountably odd magic.

It didn't take long for the trio to dispatch the remaining aggressive wildlife in the area, but it was still darn annoying. It would be so much easier if they could simply save all of their energy for the God-Beast battle itself.

Almost as if reading her mind, Hawk signalled her. "A nice breeze, if you wouldn't mind, Angie."

The Princess called up a bit of Jinn's power as Hawk placed his hand on the ground and grew the by-now familiar flowers - they were significantly larger and wider spread than last time they'd been used, she noticed. Of course - if they could disperse Hawk's Sleep flower pollen all the way to the Tower, they wouldn't have to waste valuable time and energy fighting every territory-obsessed lower life form in the whole damn forest.

They waited a few minutes for it to adequately spread before setting out, stepping carefully past a large array of sleeping beasts. In a few minutes, the Moonlight Tower finally came into view through the thick foliage.

Oh yeah. She'd forgotten about the Tower. Specifically, how tall it was.

"Please please PLEASE tell me we don't have to climb that," she implored.

"Gah," a voice agreed from behind her.

Caught off-guard, the Princess whirled in fright, shocked to see a familiar face crouched down behind her. "GAH!"

An alarmed Kevin sprung back out of her cane's reach. "Gah!"

"FIRE BALL!"

Hawk ducked to the side, protesting, "Hey! What are you targeting ME for!"

"Because dog-boy here wouldn't be able to dodge it, dimwit!"

"Kevin," Duran greeted with a slight bow, all manners as usual. "This is a surprise. I thought you were still in Rolante."

"Riesz attacked Kevin," the runaway Prince explained solemnly. "Just wanted to see Riesz's bedroom. Kevin didn't know Riesz was sleeping there at time. Lucky to escape with life."

Angela burst out laughing, then hurriedly tried to cover it with a cough. Suddenly, she couldn't wait to see the other Princess again. Despite her mirth, she did feel an up swelling of strange emotion - it couldn't possibly be sympathy, though - when she saw the kicked-puppy expression on Kevin's face. Poor guy - stymied at every turn. She certainly knew how that felt; it seemed next to impossible to get any action in any format during these world-ending days. Damn it. It WAS sympathy. She had the same love-life problems as a half-Beastman. She was in deep trouble after all.

"There there, Kevin," she said, patting his arm briefly. "You're still doing better than all of Riesz's other suitors combined. Most of them get attacked if they try so much as to hold her hand - you made it all the way to her bedroom before she tried to kill you."

Hawk let out a low whistle, no doubt recalling his previous flirtations with the Amazoness. "I had no idea how much I was playing with death."

Glaring, and not appreciating the reminder that she might in fact have a rival in Riesz who had already made it further with Hawk in a couple of meetings than what she had over a couple of months, the Princess retorted, "She was probably too shocked at your audacity to properly react. By the time she recovered she likely thought it bad manners to kill one of the liberators of Rolante."

"Well, that explains why you're not in Rolante anymore, but what are you doing at the Moonlight Tower?" Duran asked.

"Gah," Kevin said, ruffling his unruly mop of hair. "Came looking for Lugar. Giant Wolf been sighted - wolves alone not keep little Lugar safe."

"Giant wolf?" Angela asked, looking at her comrades worriedly. "Do you think it could be the God-Beast?"

Duran had a look of intense concentration, before finally reporting, "The Fairy thinks its likely. Most of the God-Beasts tend to grow according to their surroundings, and the one thing there's lots of in the Moonlight Forest..."

"Giant wolf God-Beast?" Kevin asked, looking alarmed.

Hawk was staring up at the full moon in the sky, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Where did you last see it?"

"Not see - hear, smell. Last time there," the Prince replied, pointing towards the ridiculously tall tower.

"Glorious," the Princess groaned. "We ARE going to have to climb it."

"Hopefully it's somewhere on the lower levels," the Rogue murmured, sharpening his daggers in the background.

"Kevin have magical rope, maybe it help?" the half-Beastman suggested helpfully, holding out a coiled length of ordinary-looking rope. "Supposed to help get in and out places fast."

The trio paused, staring at the runaway Prince, who shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot at the sudden attention. "What wrong?"

"Where, exactly, did you get this 'magical rope'?" the Magus asked suspiciously.

"Gah, it just new. Kevin bought it for 5,000 Luc from strange merchants today," he replied, waving a hairy arm off vaguely in the direction of Moonlight City Mintos. "Cat-people, dressed like from desert."

"They're stalking us, they must be," Angela muttered under her breath. "How by the Goddess did they get to the Beast Kingdom from Navarre in a single day! Are there that many giant super-fast white dragons in the world?"

Hawk had plucked the rope from the half-Beastman's grasp at some point, and was examining it at length. "It looks just like ordinary rope to me. I can't sense any magic at all. Yo, Angie!"

The Princess caught the rope in a single hand when he threw it to her, resting her cane on the ground briefly to examine it at length. The Rogue was right; not a trace of magic present at all. "You've been had. I knew those lousy merchants were a pair of swindlers!"

Kevin looked crushed. "Magic rope not work? Cost all allowance!"

"In all fairness, everything they've sold us thus far has been legit," pointed out the Forcenan.

Hawk snorted. "That's only because they know we'd spot something so fake straight away. Kevin here was a walking target for them. They were probably trying to earn back the money we stole from them by making a few rip off sales."

Duran had a pained look on his face that by now his two comrades had come to associate with the Fairy embarking on a tirade inside his head. The subject was easy enough to guess. Angela gritted her teeth, hoping to the Goddess that the gnat remembered to keep her tiny mouth shut.

Just in case, she loudly announced, "Well, rip-off-artists or not, we'd better hurry and find that God-Beast, right?" A pointed stare at Duran left the Mana Knight looking confused, but hopefully put the reminder across to the Fairy encased within.

"Kevin help," the half-Beastman offered, clenching his fists and banging once on his chest.

Goddess, not this again. It had been bad enough when Riesz had wanted to tag along with them, now Kevin too? At least Riesz spoke proper English. Kevin's odd manner of speaking had the unfortunate tendency to remind her of Carlie.

"I don't think that would be such a good idea, Kevin," Duran interjected soothingly. He glanced nervously at Hawk for support, but the thief just shrugged. "You don't, well, you haven't class changed and..."

"Gah! Kevin class changed with Riesz and Carlie!" he protested.

"Er, that is, you haven't undertaken a second class change, and...," Duran trailed off, lost for words.

Angela finally swooped in to give the Paladin some assistance. "And quite frankly, without it, you'll get torn to shreds."

"Not to mention get in our way," Hawk muttered.

Kevin began to protest, but the Rogue quickly produced a handful of powder from nowhere and threw it into his face. The half-Beastman blinked sleepily for a moment before finally collapsing, unconscious, onto the ground. Somehow, the situation seemed familiar, but Angela couldn't quite recall why.

Brushing his hands off on his pants, the Navarrian started walking towards the tower entrance. "Let's get going then!"

"Um, is it safe to just leaving him sleeping there like that, in this middle of this forest?" Duran wondered. The Princess spared a moment to be disturbed at how used they'd become to the Rogue's underhanded tactics.

"We put most of the wildlife in the Moonlight Forest asleep, remember? He'll wake up long before they do," dismissed the thief with a wave of his hand.

Grinning and resisting the girlish urge to shower the thief with praise - she might have developed feelings for him, but she'd be damned before she'd let him start thinking himself smart - Angela trudged after the resourceful desert rat, Duran running to catch up a moment later. Together they entered the massive tower, all secretly praying that the God-Beast would be sleeping exactly where the Mana Stone used to be. Naturally, though, they weren't that lucky.

The interior of the Moonlight Tower was amazingly boring. Previously, the Princess hadn't really taken the time to observe it properly, as most of her attention had been focused on the Mana Stone of Moon and her righteous indignation that Hawk should receive Luna's blessing, yet she, a Delvar at that time, would not. Being the first Magus in living memory had gone a long way to soothing that particular wound; being infatuated with the rival in question hadn't hurt either.

Shaking her head as though to clear it - the interior was clearly so boring that she had difficulty focusing on it for more than fifteen seconds - the Altenan beauty resumed inspecting the first level of what she feared was many to come. Grey seemed to be the overall theme. Absolutely everything was made out of stone. It seemed that the Beastmen, when they'd built the Tower several hundred or so years ago around the Stone, had exactly the same sense of aesthetics that their descendants did today. There was a slight attempt at decoration on some of the doorways, but the workmanship was simple and just as drab as everything else. It was no wonder that the Moonlight Tower was in such disuse.

After they'd cleared the first few flights of stairs and dispatched a few enchanted suits of armour that had obviously been left lying around far too long in a place so rich in Mana, the second reason as to why the Moonlight Tower wasn't used much became apparent. It wasn't just that it was aesthetically unappealing; the darn thing had clearly been organised for maximum inconvenience. It would have made sense to have the stairs in a never-ending spiral, but instead at every level they were forced to go searching through the many rooms for the staircase to the next level. Annoying as it was, this mightn't have been such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that a ridiculous number of the doors were locked, forcing Hawk to pick the often-rusted keyholes, or if Angela was feeling impatient, blast them open.

All the same, the first ten levels were a walk in the proverbial park. The next five levels weren't that bad either. The five after that, they had to slow down a little to catch their breath. Five after that, and all hell was about to break loose.

"WHY WON'T IT END! Where IS this Goddess-forsaken God-Beast anyway!" Angela gasped as they reached the twenty-fifth level in the tower. She didn't even know how far up they were yet, but this was taking forever!

Hawk was off to the side, picking a lock on a door that hopefully held the next staircase behind it. "It seems a bit too small in here to hold a God-Beast," he remarked, swinging the door open after a moment and poking his head inside for a look-see. "Dangaard was the smallest we've faced thus far, and even it would feel a bit cramped inside here." The tower was plenty vast to humans, but the Navarrian had a point; it didn't make much sense for a God-Beast to hang around inside a man-made structure.

"Do you think Kevin could have been mistaken?" Duran worried. Loaded down with heavy armour as he was he was probably the worst off.

"I'll kill him," the Magus announced, gripping her cane.

"He seemed pretty convinced, and all of the other God-Beasts have been relatively close to where their Stones were located," the Navarrian pointed out, heading over to the next door. He opened it, and leapt back with a cry of surprise when a number of enchanted swords came flying out at him. He deflected several, the rusted blades shattering on impact with his own short swords and dropping uselessly to the ground. Angela lazily blasted one stray with a Holy Ball before returning to her ranting.

"These God-Beasts can't ever be anywhere CONVENIENT, can they!" she fumed, blasting off a another spell vaguely in Hawk's direction as he confronted another stack of foes. "I mean, Dangaard couldn't even have the good manners to stay on the ground!"

"I found it!" Hawk called a moment later, waving them over to the next staircase. Even the stoic Paladin was hard-pressed to conceal a groan as they renewed their ascent.

Another ten flights, with still no sign of the God-Beast, and Angela's legs were burning. Still they climbed.

She'd lost count of how many flights of stairs they had mounted when they finally reached a level that differed drastically from the rest. The ceiling was higher and it was more ornate, even if the Beastmen's most inventive idea of decoration had been arranging the lighter and darker coloured stones in a pattern. Furthermore, aside from two rooms at each side, the entire level was empty, with the only features being a staircase in the very centre and another generic stone statue of the Mana Goddess against the far wall. The Princess's legs felt like jelly, but she ignored her exhaustion and stood up straight, examining the room with a steely eye.

Still no sign of the God-Beast.

In a way, they were grateful - they had spent hours upon hours climbing, and somehow it was more exhausting than the usual fighting of carnivorous, or sometimes just plain cranky, beasts. They'd been scratched up a little a long the way, so Duran spared a moment to cast cure magic over each of them. It did quite a bit towards rejuvenating their strength and strained muscles, but Angela was still looking forward to getting this God-Beast over and done with so she could go sleep.

"This level's different," the Forcenan commented belatedly, forcing Angela to wince at the blatant statement of the obvious. "I wonder why."

Hawk had wandered some distance away, and was currently looking up the staircase. "Guys... I think we've reached the top."

"WHAT?" In a burst of adrenaline, she rushed over to the Rogue's side, following his heavenward gaze. Indeed, the moonlit sky was visible beyond. In horror, she ran up the stairs with renewed energy, as if seeking confirmation that they really had reached the tower's summit.

The incredible view that greeted them when they reached the top of the final flight of stairs almost made the entire painful journey all worth it. Angela, in her shock, briefly considered adding it to her growing list of potential romantic destinations, before deciding that she'd never willing climb that many badly-arranged stairs ever again, and certainly not for any purpose short of saving the world.

The crisp, clean air and cool breeze were like a slap in the face after an entire day in the musty interior of the Tower. Stars twinkled mockingly in the ever-present night sky as the trio were bathed in the light of the full moon. A gentle breeze tousled the tops of trees in the forest now far, far beneath them.

"Are you telling me," Angela rasped, "That after all that... DOLAN ISN'T EVEN IN THE TOWER?"

"I hate to say it, but... it looks like it, yes," the Rogue admitted.

A prolonged silence ensued. The Magus was mentally running through a list of spells she was going to cast on Kevin when she next saw the half-Beastman. Most of them were fatal. Maybe she could get Duran to heal him between attacks.

"So... what now?" asked the Mana Knight.

A rumble was the only response to the question, and Angela was suddenly gripping the low wall that surrounded the roof for balance as the Tower shook ominously. "What by all Eight Elementals was THAT?" she asked, clutching her cane to her chest protectively.

Moments later, before anyone could answer, the Moonlight Tower shook again beneath their feet. Duran unsheathed his sword, moving in closer to the Princess, eyes flitting about suspiciously. Hawk, with his usual disregard for heights, was leaning precariously over the side of the wall. "Uh, guys... I think I found the God-Beast."

The Tower shook again several times in rapid succession, Hawk scrambling back suddenly, his short swords appearing in his hands as if by magic. "Get back!" he yelled in warning, just as a giant furred hand rose and gripped the top of the wall, the shards of stone splintering off as the long, black, and wickedly curved claws dug into the rock. A second one followed, pulling up with it the face of what could only be Dolan, God Beast of the Moon.

Ah, glorious. Claws AND teeth. Really big ones, at that.

Kevin's description had been surprisingly accurate. Dolan's form was quite reminiscent werewolf, with the monster's entire body covered with bristling white fur that was streaked with highlights of an ethereal moon yellow. Each paw, though it closer resembled a giant human hand, was adorned with vicious, long black claws, and its fangs were an intimidating size, gleaming white. The only other major distinguishing feature was a large ruby that seemed to be inset into the beast's forehead. And did she mention the claws and teeth?

By all rights, this monstrosity could never have possibly fit inside the building. Did it usually sleep on the roof? Had they encroached on its territory? Or did it merely sense foes within its vicinity and seek them out? Whichever it was, it looked angry. Angela took an unconscious step back as its fierce gaze bore down on them, accompanied by a snarl. Duran held his ground, but didn't particularly look like he wanted to. Suddenly the battle wasn't looking quite so straightforward anymore.

They'd grown overconfident after the relatively easy battle with Xan Bie. They had been fresh from their class change, and had forgotten that the God Beasts had been growing stronger every day. This God-Beast had likely been free from its stone for over a week, and indeed, it was the most evolved of all the God-Beasts thus far; The God Beast of Light hadn't even formed into anything recognizable when they fought it, Land Umber had a tough outer shell but little else, Dangaard had barely become used to using its wings and was relatively small, and Fiegmund and Xan Bie, while fearsome, had been composed of nothing more their native elements. Dolan, on the other hand, was classic God-Beast - it was massive, fully formed, and had a glint of intelligence in its eyes which the others had lacked.

Even with the second class change, this was not going to be even slightly fun.

The God-Beast wasted absolutely no time in getting down to the business of trying to kill them. Obviously sure of its grip on the monolithic Tower, it reached out with one gigantic paw and swiped at Hawk, who disappeared then reappeared unharmed on the other side of the Princess. The Rogue immediately retaliated; throwing an unfamiliar silver dart that looked like it had been imbued with some sort of magic. The small weapon buried itself in the beast's arm, then suddenly exploded in a dazzling light - when Angela's vision returned, it didn't look like it had done much more than char the fur, but the grunt of pain it elicited from their foe indicated that there must have been more to the injury than met the eye.

Not sure exactly how to proceed with a foe quite so large, Angela settled towards the back, liberally throwing a variety of Holy Balls, Fire Balls, Dark Forces and Diamond Missiles at the Beast while Duran charged in repeatedly with his sword, trying to get a opening to strike the vital head or neck areas, but instead having to settle for gradually crippling the Beast's left arm. They continued this way for a while, intent on wearing Dolan down until they were given an opening for a decisive strike. More than once the Paladin caught the back end of an sweeping paw, but his armour seemed to protect him to some degree, as he always got back up, cast a quick cure on himself before doggedly repeating the process. Where he was drawing the stamina from after their hellish climb here, the Princess couldn't fathom, but she dutifully gave him cover from behind. Hawk seemed to be drawing an endless supply of darts from somewhere, holding them in his glowing hand for a minute before flinging the enchanted darts at the God-Beast. It was a form of magic she was unfamiliar with, but now wasn't the time to be asking questions.

Of course, when not doing that, the Navarrian instead focused his attention on dodging the snapping jaws of the God-Beast and taunting it with insults about its mother. If Duran's stamina was amazing, Hawk's capacity for wasting energy in the middle of a fight and still having strength left over was nothing short of miraculous.

"Stop playing around, Hawk!" she ordered, leaping back as the enraged Lunar Beast made another swipe, narrowly missing the pair. She threw a fire ball into its face to cover Duran as he ran in with his sword held high to attack. He managed to get a few slashes in before he was forced to retreat again.

"You call this playing around? Fine! Cutter Missile!" He announced, pulling an odd double-sided axe from somewhere on his person - Angela tried not to stare, wondering where he'd hidden it - and throwing it with startling velocity at the Beast's chest. The howl of pain its impact solicited was reassuring. Dolan's reaction, however, was not.

Eyes glinting dangerously, Angela was alarmed to see the God Beast glow yellow briefly; in that soft light that they regularly associated with Luna's magic. Another moment later and the monster's deep black claws were suddenly glowing that same ethereal yellow.

So entranced in trying to figure out what sort of magic had just been used, neither the Rogue nor Magus were quite prepared for the angry slash of those same glowing claws. The Princess was far enough back to be perfectly safe, but Hawk was practically a blur as he tried to leap out of ranges, the tips of razor-sharp claws still catching his chest, ripping through his shirt. The thief stumbled back, Angela watching in muted horror as three, deep, angry gashes started dripping blood onto the ground. Of course - Duran had armour to protect him from such injures, whereas the Rogue apparently relied on nothing more than sheer reflexes to keep himself alive.

Even more terrifying was that as the wounds on Hawk's chest opened, she noticed several of the injuries they'd inflicted on Dolan apparently heal themselves. What kind of crazy magic WAS this!

"Duran!" she ordered, suddenly snapping back to attention, magic whirling about her in fury as she tried to keep her emotions in check. As great an opportunity as it might have been, now was not, regrettably, the time to be rushing uselessly to her beloved's side. That bastard God-Beast... feeling the fine hair on her arms beginning to stand on end, the Princess raised her cane to the sky, gathering more and more magic, letting it swirl about her threateningly. The Clenunnus Cane began to crackle with electricity as she glared at Dolan, with clouds gathering unnaturally overhead, briefly obscuring the moonlight. The breeze suddenly picked up; Jinn's influence was leaking through in the excess magic. "This'll teach you to piss off a Magus! THUNDERSTORM!"

It was hard to tell who was the most surprised by the torrent of lighting bolts that shot down from the sky with a deafening clap, all converging on the unsuspecting God-Beast. It yowled in pain as Angela struggled to keep the surprisingly powerful spell contained, cutting it off only when her strength began to wane dangerously.

Some serious damage had finally been inflicted - there were gaping, bleeding wounds pock marking Dolan's body, and the air smelt strongly of singed fur. The Beast's breathing grew laboured, but it still has strength enough to lash out against its foe. The Magus was too tired to properly dodge, the spell having taken more out of her than she wanted to admit. She winced as the backhand blow sent her flying to the ground some distance away. That had almost certainly broken some ribs; only pure luck had prevented her from sharing Hawk's fate.

It was relieving to see the Navarrian in question struggling back to his feet as Duran came running over to apply healing magic to her as well. Realistically, the knight didn't need to be right there to cast it, but she wasn't about to start questioning it at this point in time - she just wanted some cure magic, soon, now, yesterday.

"Angela! Are you okay!" he asked worriedly, face distraught.

"I will be once you heal me up," she grunted, glaring at the Paladin.

"Oh, right." He fumbled a little, finally getting his wits together enough to place a glowing blue hand on her shoulder. Moments later, she was encompassed by the soothing light, and felt the injuries seemingly melt away, with only the barest of phantom pains indicating that they'd ever been there. He helped her to her feet, despite her attempts at waving him away. She wasn't an invalid! Honestly, she'd been hurt worse before - there were times when being a Princess in peril was rather annoying. If it was Hawk, she might not have been so quick to take offence, but now was hardly the time for pleasantries!

The Rogue, she was pleased to see, had wasted absolutely no time returning to taunting the aggravated God-Beast. She'd never actually got around to discussing his apparent death wish with him, and mentally moved it up her priority list. Suicidal dives off flying dragons, jumping onto the back of an angry God-Beast, and teasing quite possibly the biggest werewolf they'd ever seen? The guy had to be trying to give her a heart attack - she wasn't certain if she could handle this kind of worry and stress over long periods of time.

Tired though she was, Angela fired off a medium-strength Holy Ball. It didn't do nearly the damage her Thunderstorm - who had ever thought Jinn's innocent wind magic was capable of such destruction? - had, but they were slowly turning the tide.

Until Dolan raised its head to the Moon, and started howling.

The Princess dropped to the ground, covering her ears as the Moonlight Tower shook - for one terrifying moment she thought that it might even collapse beneath their feet. Nearby, Hawk and Duran followed suite. The sound was all encompassing, entirely agonising... she felt her body bruise, and recently healed injuries begin to reopen at the endless, quaking sound. It was more deafening than even thunder. Was it magic? She couldn't tell. She just wanted it to STOP!

Through squinting eyes, Angela was amazed to see Duran stagger to his feet, clutching his mythril sword, even as the God-Beast continued its Howl. How he could even MOVE was beyond her comprehension. Yet still, unsteadily, he lifted his sword and recklessly charged Dolan.

Through the haze, she suddenly understood. There it was - the opening they'd been waiting for. With its head thrown back to the starry sky, the God-Beast had exposed its vulnerable neck to them. Duran seemed to mouth three words, the sound lost amidst the endless howl, before his sword started... glowing?

Dolan never even saw it coming. The Paladin plunged his blade deep into the God-Beast's neck, cutting the howl short. Seconds later, the shine from the sword grew impossibly bright, as it seemed to explode outwards in a blinding wave. Glorious. Now she was blind AND deaf.

When the rumbling finally ceased, the Princess dared to open her eyes, appalled at the damage both of the previous attacks had caused. The area around them was a complete mess - shattered fragments of stone were scattered about haphazardly, as well as both their blood and that of their foe splattered here and there. Dolan, thankfully, was gone - perhaps its corpse had fallen from the Tower or Duran's attack had disintegrated it, but either way, the wave of unstable Mana that briefly permeated the air around them was the only confirmation she needed.

Then there was a bright light, hovering somewhere over her face - the Fairy, she realised, trying to focus properly on the annoying gnat that from her facial movements seemed to be shrieking something at her, not that Angela was capable of hearing a thing. Glancing about for her companions, she spotted Hawk first; he looked a right mess - bruises, scratches and scrapes all over, with his shirt torn and bloodstained, and more blood still leaking from his ears. She didn't even want to imagine what she must look like.

Nearby, Duran was staggering back from the edge of the Tower. She was surprised to see that his sword hadn't actually shattered after that new attack he'd unleashed. Damn merchant cats were apparently only reliable when they wanted to be. Wearily, he cast Wisp's cure magic over all them. Slowly, the aches and pains of her body faded, and unfortunately, her hearing came back too.

"-Absolutely crazy, it is! You three were hardly paying attention to the battle itself at all! And Angela - attempting a brand new high-level spell like that in the middle of a battle without even practicing it beforehand! If you'd lost control, we'd all be dead!"

"Well, I didn't, gnat, so shut up!" she said, feebly shaking her Clenunnus Cane at the floating nuisance. Thankfully, the threat seemed to work. Pulling herself wearily to her feet, she added on, almost as an afterthought, "Way to go, Duran."

The Paladin shuffled his feet, blushing and looking embarrassed. Weird. "It was nothing, really." He was looking a little ragged as well - specifically his armour, which wasn't so much dented as caved in some parts. In fact, it was rather surprising that it wasn't crushing him in its deformity. His shield, discarded to the ground at some point, wasn't much better, bearing endless scratches and several deep grooves.

"No, you earned it," the Rogue congratulated, giving him a half-hearted slap on the back when he finally dawdled over to where they were standing. "We couldn't even stand."

"You okay there, Hawk?" Angela asked, running a worried eye quickly over the thief to make certain Duran's cure magic hadn't missed any injuries. Through all the blood, it was hard to tell, but he didn't seem to be in any obvious pain.

"Just tired, Angie," he assured her. "You?"

By now she had practiced control over her facial features enough to stop the rising blush in its tracks. "Same."

"I'll just call Flammie, then," Hawk announced, picking up Flammie's drum, before his face went alarmingly blank. "Um..."

Angela and Duran's faces wore identical expressions of horror. The white dragon's plaything, their ticket off the top of this goddess-forsaken tower... was neatly snapped in half.

"Ah, so it wasn't a bone that made that noise," the Rogue observed.

"Can it be fixed!" Duran asked, alarm creeping into his voice.

"Not here. But Moonlight City Mintos should have everything we need to repair it."

An eerie silence fell over the tired group. Even the Fairy didn't dare break it.

Did this mean... that they had to climb all the way back DOWN the Tower!

This was going to be REALLY lousy.

Unless...

They hadn't died when they fell from the top of the Cave of Waterfalls, right?

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Insert post-chapter review request here. 


	47. The Limits of Adoration

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Despite its length, in this chapter a whole lot of spectacular nothing happens. You were warned.

Author's note: For some reason, this chapter did not want to be written. Alas, finally, I managed to force it out of hiding using a unique mixture of carrot and peanut shavings speared on sharp sticks (apparently it was allergic to peanuts). This is a longish chapter, but surprisingly little happens in it, and certainly no action whatsoever. Next chapter will be better. I hope, anyway. At the very least, I'm trying to make up for the sparsity of updates recently by at least delivering a lengthy chapter when I do.

Response to the Reviewers! (Thank you as always for your patience.)

Fuzzy Neko-chan: A deep fear of Carlie is probably a good thing. Maybe it's just my intense hatred of small children coming through. Woot! Another conversion to the Hawk/Angela ship! My work here is done. (Leaves the room covered in 'please update' stickers).

Ace.sodapop: Yeah, it was a pretty sweet several hours between the review count of 666 and 667. Thanks for building that time machine, just so that you'd be able to come back five billion years and review, that's a pretty damn big compliment. You see, I'd watch more soap operas if they had gore and claws and stuff. How does one become a soap opera writer anyway? Does one actually aspire to the position? Thanks for the ACE review!

Just Call Me Angels: It's really been that long? Holy cow Batman, you're right! (I should leave stasis more often). Thanks for all the reviews! Hmm, yes, if Angela was smart she would do that, wouldn't she? (strokes chin thoughtfully.)

Truewind: That's a good point with the Fairy's mind-reading, though I hadn't thought THAT hard about it. (shivers) But yes, definitely an invasion of privacy, which makes it fun to write. Thanks as always for the review.

Dragon Saint: Bon Voyage certainly hasn't featured for a very long time, so hopefully that means I've already written more from your point of view! Misunderstood indeed… thanks for the review.

TheOneAndOnlyT: Thanks for pointing out that mistake, there's always a couple of typos that is missed by both my proof-reads and good ol' spellchecker. Unfortunately, I'm incredibly lazy, so most of these mistakes usually stay for all eternity, unless maybe they're really huge ones and no one can figure out what the original intention of the sentence actually was. As for the Fairy's references to things the Elementals have said, well, I like to leave some things up to the imagination. Thanks for such an in-depth review!

Bitter Green Tea: I was surprised that everyone liked Dolan's fight scene best – I actually thought it was one of my poorer efforts. Glad you liked it, though!

Shade-Duelist: No shame in having a long story. In fact, yours will probably outstrip this one pretty soon at that rate. Good luck with it!

Wingnut: Dolan in the game didn't have any particular magic weaknesses that I can recall, but there must have been one – for this I just used some of that groovy stuff called 'creative license' and made him weaker to Jinn's magic. Metal cane conducting heat, that's something I hadn't thought of before but makes a lot of sense. In-game haggling – I agree, it's game designing for the future! Stealing from vendors should be possible, too, not just from monsters (and where do those darn monsters get their stash from, anyway?) Woot, ANZAC biscuits! Not that it's anywhere near ANZAC day, but free food is free food, after all….

NalmpChupone: Thanks!

Violent Zenith: At the risk of sounding repetitive: thanks!

Thousand Winds: You picked up on that? I'm impressed. I don't know, even if I could whistle, I don't think I could forget my non-whistling roots. Instead, I would feel obliged to reach out to the other poor non-whistlers, and comfort them, reminding them that even if you can't whistle, you can still lead a full and fruitful life…. (You can, if you BELIEVE!) Thanks for the review!

Azure Nightshade: How do I do it? My secret is this: Every morning when I wake up I dunk my head in a cold bucket of water. You should do it too. In fact, everyone should do it. Really. I'd like to see that. (LOL) Thanks!

TenshiNoAkuma: WOW, that is really big praise. If you do happen to draw that picture of Hawk, be sure to send it to me, that would be cool. As for the final class changes – well, those were voted on yonks ago, so I can't really be changing it now! It seems to have worked out well enough, fortunately.

Freeloader1: Thanks, I was quite proud of the evolution of the God-Beasts, so I'm glad you liked it. Everyone seems to be waiting for Ancient though – I should warn you now that you'll be waiting for a while yet. Excellent review, as always.

Lady Storm: Gee Willikers! Don't be dropping dead! Thanks – the new job rocks! (Especially the bit where they pay me.)

Shin-Ryu Warrior: Spiral Moon is a favourite of mine too, but it was left out because it would have made the battle (and chapter) ridiculously long. Hope you like this chapter!

Demonic Dragon of Ra: No God-Beast this chapter, likely to everyone's disappointment. You'll just have to wait for next chapter! Then on to DARKNESS! YAY DARKNESS! ….you're welcome?

Soriyu: I will stop writing…… now. ……….Hey, you're still alive! You lied! See if you can ever hold yourself hostage as blackmail ever again!

LunaRyuu: I cannot confirm that, which should be all the confirmation you need. ;)

Mirowood: Gee, I wish that all of my reviewers said that. No chance of the Matango tribe in the Forest of Wonder, sorry – strictly SD3. Haven't decided what I'm doing on the fight with the Darkshine Knight yet, so you'll just have to wait and see on that one. Good luck in continuing writing your own fics!

Sesshi: Of all suggestions EVER, this one is my new official favourite: 'The Fairy turns out to be the last God Beast and eats their souls'. Gold, Sesshi. Pure gold.

Cookie Pixie: By sheer coincidence there is more arguing in this chapter, and probably very little else. Thanks for your understanding with the delay in updates – work has become a big black hole of time, but I'm starting to figure out a schedule that should allow more frequent updates in the future. You finished playing the Hawk/Duran/Angela game? Man, it's been so long for me. I should ask you for notes. ;) Thanks for an awesome review.

Slash, The Ironman: Reponse to reviewers has become too long, so I'll make this short and sweet: Thanks!

That's more than enough from me. Up front I'll warn you that this chapter is pretty uneventful and completely missing in progression or even a decent hardcore battle, but I hope you like it anyway.

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 47 – The Limits of Adoration

By Sinnatious

* * *

Two hours of climbing the stairs all the way back down the Moonlight Tower, and Angela was once again toying with the notion of taking her chances and leaping out of the nearest window. Duran had cast cure magic a few times in hopes of rejuvenating their strength a little, as well as taking care of a few of the more minor bumps and grazes that his quick cures during battle usually missed, but it hadn't really helped; they were all still exhausted, annoyed, and downright filthy.

It didn't improve matters any that Hawk seemed to be entertaining himself by throwing Flammie's broken toy drum up in the air and catching it over and over again. For a while there, the Princess hadn't been sure if her new found adoration for Hawk could overpower her strong desire to kill him, but logic prevailed and she reasoned that it technically was Dolan's fault that they had to climb the Tower in the first place, Dolan's fault that the drum had been broken, Dolan's fault that there was still another God-Beast left to go, and Dolan's fault that she was getting absolutely nowhere with the thief. At this point in time, she was ready to blame pretty much everything on the God-Beast.

At least the journey down had been rather quicker than the one up - they'd already opened all of the doors and killed most of the Tower's inhabitants, after all. Surprisingly, when they reached the base of the Tower, Kevin and all of the neighbouring wildlife were still fast asleep, despite the fact that they'd entered the monolithic structure the day - or night, it was hard to tell - before. Angela raised an eyebrow at Navarrian, who had the grace to look a little sheepish.

"The pollen must have been a little more powerful than I thought," he reasoned.

It turned out to be a blessing, though, as they were all a little wobbly on their feet by now. It was annoying, but it wasn't like they could rest in that Tower or the Forest, with its large array of territorial wildlife that would be more than happy to make a meal out of some sleeping warriors; that is, once said wildlife woke from their artificially induced slumber. It was better just to slug it the rest of the way to Mintos and sleep properly when they reached the inn. Providing the inn would have them back. Angela was having trouble remembering which ones they had burnt down or skipped out on.

Fortunately they'd either been very well behaved at this inn previously or the layer of grime covering them rendered the trio unrecognisable, because the innkeeper had seemed cheerful enough to let them stay the night, especially after Hawk thrust a handful of Luc he'd procured from somewhere at the greedy proprietor. Somehow they each had found their way to their separate beds, Angela barely remembering to remove her shoes before collapsing into blissful unconsciousness.

When she next opened her eyes, it was impossible to gauge how much time had passed. That was the annoying thing about forests wrapped in eternal night. The only thing she was aware of was the fact that she felt much better and had a pressing need to visit the bathroom.

"Ah, so the sleeping beauty finally awakens," Hawk's voice wafted over from somewhere to her right. She rolled her head lazily to the side to catch a glimpse of amber eyes glittering in the candlelight. Utterly mesmerizing. After a moment, she realized she was staring, but hoped she could pass it off as sleepiness.

"What time is it?" she groaned, sitting up and wincing as her stomach muscles protested. She was almost terrified of what standing would feel like. After all that stair climbing yesterday, she'd have a figure that even the fittest Amazonesses would be jealous of.

"I'm not sure exactly, but you've been asleep for at least fifteen hours. The Fairy's been buzzing around Duran's head for about the past hour, trying to wake him up. It's adorable how persistent she is, really."

"I am NOT adorable! I am an emissary of the Mana Goddess herself! Show me some respect here!" the Fairy protested from the other side of the room. Duran let out a barely audible groan before rolling over onto his side, the Fairy tugging rather feebly on a lock of his orange hair. It had to be the first time they'd ever awoken before the Knight. It was a novel feeling.

"How long have YOU been awake?" she asked, running a discerning eye over the object of her affection. He was looking much healthier now; he'd obviously cleaned himself by some means. Given Mintos' lack of appropriate bathing facilities, he must have gone down to the beach, and come to think of it, wasn't his shirt torn to shreds yesterday? The black tunic he was wearing now looked almost new. "And where did you get those clothes?"

Smiling mysteriously, the thief merely replied, "I woke up only an hour or two ago. Flammie's drum is fixed. Hopefully the sound hasn't changed on some frequency we can't hear."

"Oh. That's good," she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched, hiding her wince while making sure the Navarrian got an eyeful. Quite frankly, at the moment she couldn't care less about saving Mana. She had too many other pressing matters she'd put off for far too long.

They'd killed Dolan. Six God-Beasts had fallen. The only other God-Beast she knew that they had to take care of for sure was the God-Beast of Wood. After that, she assumed that they would have to find some way of reclaiming the Mana Sword from Koren - something she'd been avoiding thinking about of late. Either way, the Princess was running out of time. She'd never anticipated the thief's seduction to be so darn difficult! Previously, she'd figured that the only reason she hadn't woken up in the thief's bed was due to the stubborn rebuttals to all of her companion's advances. It had seemed logical, then, that as soon as she started showing some positive reciprocation, things would take their natural course. It was the way it had always worked before. Yet for some unfathomable reason, her tried and true methods were failing miserably. She was growing quickly frustrated with her lack of progress.

Maybe, she reasoned, she should throw away the tip-toeing about, and just come straight out and say something. Well, if not say something, then at least do something drastic enough to give Hawk the message. The thief, for such a ladies-man-wanna-be, was acting strangely thickheaded over the whole affair. They flirted back and forth, but it seemed that whenever she reached a certain point, something - specifically Duran, the Fairy, or monsters bent on their death - would interfere, cutting the interchange short.

No time like the present. "Hawk, I..."

Duran suddenly sat bolt upright in bed. "FAIRY! I'm awake! You can stop it now!" Both Angela and Hawk turned to stare at the Forcenan in shock - the Paladin had never before reprimanded their self-appointed holy guardian in such a fashion. He noticed them a moment later. "Oh, Hawk, Angela. Good morning." His brow creased. "...Or is it afternoon?"

"Who cares! You've all been asleep forever! You still have another God-Beast to defeat! We can't waste time!" the Fairy complained, buzzing a figure of eight around their heads angrily.

"Shut up gnat," Angela said, waving her Clenunnus Cane warningly in the air. "You have no right to complain! You sat in the comfort of Duran's skull the entire way yesterday!" The complaint was reflexive now, almost second-nature.

Surprisingly enough, the Fairy didn't have a response for that, so everyone heard her stomach growl in the sudden silence.

"Breakfast, I think," Hawk piped up, as though the sound had reminded him.

Angela struggled to hide her embarrassment by glaring at her companions, announcing, "After I've cleaned! No self-respecting Princess sits down at a table to eat covered in mud!" And the dried blood of herself and her companions, she mentally added, but the thought was too morbid to mention out loud. Goddess, her hair must be a fright, and she'd long given up worrying about the state of her nails. The Magus had grown used to irregular meals, sleeping on the road, and even the gore and carnage her recent occupation required. The one thing, however, that she'd never be able to able to adapt to was the lack of appropriate bathing facilities. It was horrifying to imagine what she'd have to do if she didn't have Undine's magic at her disposal. An ice-cold shower was still better than no shower at all, and she'd grown up in Altena after all; cold wasn't something that particularly bothered her.

When she returned a short time later, as clean as she could hope to get without a proper bathtub, breakfast was already laid out on the table. Hawk was quite happily munching away on some toast spread liberally with jam, but Duran was politely awaiting her arrival. It was amazing that even after all this time on the road that the Paladin still bothered remembering his courtly manners. That Aunt of his must have been one hard-handed woman.

Without even a nod for greeting, she set about piling her own plate with food, ignoring her usual rule of eating moderately in front of objects of affection. She was relatively certain that it was one thing the thief would never notice, and after all, it was hard to eat less than a desert rat who was probably used to going for days without a full meal.

There was no planning at this breakfast, nor the melancholic silence that made it feel like a final meal - Dolan's ferocity had destroyed any arrogance that they had developed with the second class change, but the knowledge that they had still defeated the God-beast as battle-weary as they were was a great consolation. Had they been better prepared and more rested before the fight, Angela didn't doubt that they would have avoided many of those close calls. Indeed, with the Fairy once again sulking inside Duran's head, nothing was on anyone's mind other than the need to sate their raging hunger. Breakfast, a meal that the Magus had rarely celebrated prior to her temporary exile, had never tasted quite so good.

The Fairy thankfully seemed willing to respect at least this silence, though you could tell just by looking at the gnat that their ever-present irritant was just itching to say something. Angela made certain to prop her Clenunnus Cane within clear view and easy reach. Idly, the Princess wondered just how the weapon had earned the nickname 'Fairy Swatter'. How often did one even get the opportunity to meet a Fairy, anyway, and if you did, what were the odds that you'd want to swat them as much as theirs? She pitied the Goddess if all of her emissaries were as annoying as this one.

Once breakfast was finished, though, no one quite knew what to do. Though it hadn't been said outright just yet, all of their muscles still ached from yesterday's exercise, and Angela's magic still felt a little unstable. Wisp's cure magic, as amazing as it was, really couldn't do much of anything to help with those kind of things - the most it could hope to do was delay the effects temporarily. In short, it seemed foolhardy to race off to face the God Beast of Wood in such form, especially as it should theoretically have spent the longest amount of time out of its Stone. With unspoken consensus, the three agreed that at least a couple of hours to limber up and mentally relax wouldn't go astray. The Magus was a little surprised that Duran was willing to delay his mission even slightly, though, as focused and goal-oriented as he tended to be.

His reasoning became apparent mere moments later though, when he picked up his shield and armour - even though he'd not been wearing them at breakfast, she only just noted now what an odd occurrence it was to see the Paladin without his armour. He didn't wear it when he was sleeping, of course, but the only other time she'd seen him take it off had been in the Navarre desert.

"I have to go get this fixed," he announced without preamble. The shield bore deep grooves from Dolan's claws, and the armour was so badly dented that Angela had to wonder how the Forcenan had even removed it the night before. "Mintos doesn't have much in the way of weapons, but many Beastmen use armour, so there ought to be a decent blacksmith in town somewhere capable of fixing it."

Hawk didn't seem convinced of the idea, "As badly as that's damaged? You'll probably be better off getting new armour altogether."

Shrugging the Paladin replied, "I doubt we could afford it. It'll be fine."

"Don't be such a martyr," Hawk grumbled, searching through his pockets, withdrawing a purse that looked to be full of money and throwing it to the startled knight. "Here. If they have good armour, buy it. We can't have the Mana Knight running around unprotected."

"Uh, thanks." The Forcenan looked like a little like a startled needlebird for a moment. He paused as though to ask where the generous sum of money had come from, thought better of it, and then continued on towards the door. "Would either of you like to come?"

Waving a lazy tanned hand in dismissal, the Navarrian leant back, rocking his chair up onto its hind legs. "Not much in the way of interesting sights in Mintos. I'll just hang out here until you're done."

"Oh. Angela?" Duran asked hopefully.

The Princess paused in thought. A part of her rationalised that it really wasn't wise to leave Duran to perform any sort of monetary transaction by himself, but she couldn't ignore this opportunity! Finally! A significant amount of alone time with Hawk! Or rather, a significant amount of alone time since she'd decided she liked him. The Goddess was likely mocking her - prior to her epiphany, she was always being landed with the thief. All those wasted opportunities!

Duran would just have to learn to muddle through haggling all by himself. He'd seen Hawk do it enough times to avoid being COMPLETELY ripped off.

"I think I'll stay here Duran," she apologised, using an unreasonable amount of self-control to contain her grin. "Armour shopping isn't really my thing. You enjoy yourself though!" She gave him a cheery wave in encouragement, mentally hurrying him along.

The Paladin appeared disappointed, but returned the wave and headed out of the inn on his own anyway.

Moments later, she was alone. With Hawk. In an inn.

'ANGELA! Such dirty thoughts!'

The Princess's arms spasmed, earning a raised eyebrow from her companion.

"FAIRY! What are you doing in there!" She yelled out loud more for Hawk's benefit than the Fairy's.

'Well, I never! I couldn't really leave you two alone now, could I, knowing what I know!'

Reverting to mental communication, the Princess hissed, 'You could, ESPECIALLY knowing what you know!'

'There are far more important issues at stake here! I can't trust you two to act responsibly. So, I'm here as your chaperone.'

That was it. The Goddess WAS mocking her. No two ways about it.

'Shouldn't you go and keep an eye on your beloved Mana Knight?' she asked weakly, despairing as her opportunity dissipated before her very eyes.

The brief silence seemed to indicate that yes, the Fairy did think that Duran shouldn't be let out on his own, but for some unfathomable reason the tiny gnat thought that playing chaperone to the two of them was more important.

'Why didn't YOU go with him?' the Fairy replied belatedly.

'I thought YOU would, that's why!'

'You can't lie to me! You just wanted to be alone with Hawk!'

'YES! And you're RUINING it!'

'You're wasting your time on a scoundrel like him!' the tiny deity continued on, persistently ignoring the Princess's quite valid, she felt, arguments. 'So hopelessly flighty! Why change from Duran like that? He at least had morals and dignity! He's respectable and a knight of Forcena is a much better match for a Princess such as yourself! Can you imagine how your mother would react if you were to bring home a career criminal from Navarre? ONE WHO HAD TRIED TO HIT ON HER PREVIOUSLY!'

'You think I particularly care about what my mother thinks by now?'

'But he's... he's... he's so unreliable! And don't tell me that you're honestly planning pursuing a long-term relationship here! You've seen how he flirts with nearly anything that's female! I'm amazed he didn't try it on the Goddess! At least Duran would never cheat on you!'

'Haven't we had this conversation before! I thought you'd be happier that I wasn't trying to court your precious Mana Knight. We can't have a Magus like myself corrupting your pure Paladin, after all,' she retorted sarcastically, the only outward sign of their conversation the slight twitch of an elegant eyebrow. Hawk was by now looking mildly curious, no doubt wishing there was some way to eavesdrop on mental conversations.

Once again, the Fairy didn't have a response for that. Finally, she stuttered, 'But... I'm just telling the truth. You were set on him for so long! I can't believe that all of that fanatical devotion could just vanish like that!'

'I'm tired of this! Get OUT! OUT!' She gave the equivalent of a mental shove to her unwelcome resident. The Fairy thankfully left her skull at her prodding, but unfortunately seemed fully intent on remaining in her physical presence.

"Fairy," Hawk greeted cordially. "Giving Duran some alone time, are we?"

The tiny deity's expression flitted through a wide variety of emotions before finally settling on guilt. "He'll be fine."

"Suuuuuure." The Rogue apparently didn't care much either way, as he started carelessly twirling one of his throwing blades through his fingers. Angela watched with a morbid sort of fascination. She was quite adept with her cane these days, but everything she'd been taught about weapons combat had been for pure efficiency, and for all of her recent practice it had only really increased the effectiveness, speed and economics of her existing skill. The sort of control of movement that Hawk exhibited with the wide variety of weapons he used was rather astonishing - had someone taught him this, or was it just natural talent?

The Princess was reminded once again how little she knew of her companion. The Rogue had only ever spoken briefly of his life at the thieves' guild, and even then it was mostly in reference to Eagle or Jessica. She didn't know any details about his family, how he came to be there, or even how he learned his so-called 'trade'.

She could ask him these things, she thought, scowling at the glowing nuisance floating above their heads, if the damned Fairy wasn't present. Actually, there was quite a lot she could be doing to progress her relationship with the Navarrian if their self-appointed guardian wasn't here.

"So...," she asked, scrambling for something interesting to talk about in the absence of all of the things she really wanted to talk about. "Do you do your hair like that every day?"

Oh, that was lame. Where had all of her poise and charm gone these days? She couldn't recall ever making such a fool of herself before. If anything, she should be more confident and self-assured than ever before! She'd taken on God-Beasts and lived to tell the tale! Why did she get nervous and start stammering around a guy she'd had no trouble talking to for the past couple of months! It was like she'd reverted to her days of a stuttering young girl!

Hawk appeared bemused by her question, at the very least. "Did you want tips Angie? I think your hair is fine just the way it is, personally, but if you're really looking for a change..."

At least he'd sort of complimented her hair. "I was just wondering if that was standard style in the desert..."

The Fairy was snickering at her in the background. There had to be some sort of way to salvage this situation.

"I never knew you were so interested in desert culture. Looking to form an alliance?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows.

She was suddenly reminded of the very first time she'd met the thief - and the way out she'd just been given was better than any exit she could have ever hoped for. "It would have to be a very select alliance. Altena and Navarre are the unpopular Kingdoms at the moment, after all." The Princess tried to ignore the Fairy's gagging in the background.

"Ah, so would we be inviting the Beast Kingdom to this little party? They aren't too popular right now either."

Wrinkling her nose in distaste, the Magus briefly wondered if she was wasting this double entrende on the thief after all. "I like to keep such exchanges within cultures that bathe."

Hawk chuckled at that. "Poor Kevin would be crushed."

"You're better off forming an alliance with Forcena, to repair all the damage that was wrought," the Fairy muttered.

"Oh, Goddess, will you shut up!" she demanded. The annoying gnat just insisted on getting in the way all the time! "When all this is over I'm going straight back to the Mana Holyland to file a personal complaint with the Mana Goddess over the rudeness of her messengers!"

"I don't know how much weight that would hold," the Rogue commented mildly. "After all, the Goddess seems to hold the Fairy here in pretty high regard."

Wheeling on the tiny deity, Angela exclaimed, "That's right! Are you ever going to explain THAT one to us, Fairy!"

"I don't have to explain anything to you!"

"Are you kidding! You ask us to go on a whirlwind tour of the world saving Mana Stones, then go on another accelerated one risking our lives killing God-Beasts; all for absolutely no reward, because as I might remind you the Goddess was too preoccupied with YOU to be granting any wishes! And now you're saying you don't have to explain anything to us! I dare say we've earned the right at least to a little background information!"

"You got your wish!"

That was true. And technically, Duran had wanted power so he could defeat Koren; they hadn't defeated the Wizard of the Red Lotus yet, but after two class changes it was safe to say that the Forcenan had his wish granted in a roundabout sort of way. "What about Hawk?" she demanded. "He got absolutely nothing out of this crazy quest! The Goddess couldn't break the curse on Jessica!"

"Actually," the thief interrupted, his tone suddenly dull, "There wasn't any curse for the Goddess to break to begin with, remember?"

The Princess could have kicked herself for bringing that up. Now the Rogue would probably be moody for hours.

"Uh, sorry, Hawk," she murmured, fidgeting with her gloves nervously.

He waved a hand, dismissing it. "Don't worry about it. There's no point in my getting hung up about it. We have to save the world, after all." He gave her a wry smile.

"And how often does one get to say that?" Angela agreed, crossing her legs and relaxing into the chair, leisurely sipping the remains of her juice from breakfast.

"I do find myself saying that more often than I used to."

"So," she began carefully, "What are you going to do after we DO save the world, then?"

He flashed a quick grin of gleaming white teeth at her. "Ah, you assume that we will succeed in this endeavour."

"Of course you will! You have to!" The Fairy was nearly hysterical at the thought of their failure.

"Shut up, gnat," the Princess ordered. "He's just kidding. A Magus, Rogue, and Paladin - how can we lose?"

"I can write you a list of ways," Hawk offered.

Glaring, Angela pointed her staff at him. "Answer the damn question before I blow you away."

The Navarrian merely shrugged in response to that. "Haven't thought about it. We've been kind of busy, you know, trying to stay alive. You know how it is."

Indeed. It was amazing how the quest for survival did tend to blot out most other thoughts. "No idea whatsoever? What about Navarre?" she pressed.

"What about Navarre? There's nothing left of it. And even if there was, and Flamekhan survived, I'd still have to held accountable for killing so many ninja - not all of them were possessed like in Rolante, you know. Nikita already said as much." That moody look was back on his face again. Damn, but she was out of practice - the delicate process of seduction didn't usually involve constant reminders of the most depressing memories one could conjure.

"I-," She couldn't say she was sorry. She'd already reached the conclusion months ago that consoling people was quite possibly the thing she was worst at. "Well, you effectively answered what you're NOT going to do," she muttered.

The thief was now throwing his blade up into the air and catching it again, twirling it in his fingers briefly before repeating the process. Angela watched anxiously as the deadly weapon was thrown higher and higher every time. Even after seeing the Rogue play this game many times, it never failed to unnerve the Magus. "Don't worry about it, Angie. After all, with two class changes now, I could become the best thief there ever was! I'll be a one-man guild!"

"WHAT! I didn't help you guys to class change to use your powers for evil!" the Fairy shrieked, momentarily ceasing her restless hovering.

"It's not evil. It's just wealth redistribution. Part of any economy. Merchants even build it into the prices." Throw, catch. Throw, catch. The Fairy and Hawk had this conversation at least once a week - Angela tuned it out, instead focusing uneasily on the rise and fall of the twirling blade. It was baffling - how did he manage to catch the hilt every time when he wasn't even paying attention?

"You always try and justify it, but no matter how much you do so, it will always be against the teachings of the Goddess!"

"Right. Whose bidding we are currently doing. Which would be impossible if it wasn't for my skills." Throw, catch. The blade was almost reaching the ceiling by now.

"I'm grateful for your assistance, but there are better ways!"

"What, work? We really don't have the time to be washing dishes at every inn we stay at. Besides, I'm lousy at working. Picking pockets - now there's an art form." Throw, catch.

Angela couldn't take it anymore. Using a short, precisely aimed but very powerful burst of Jinn's magic, she sent Hawk's blade to the other side of the room when it reached the apex of its journey. "Stop that!" she hissed. "Are you trying to kill yourself?"

The Rogue sent her a startled glance. "Angie! You insult me! I'd never miss the catch!"

He was probably right, but Magus refused to relent, pinning him with a glare. "It makes me nervous, okay? Just quit it."

Feigning hurt, the Navarrian slouched back in his chair, amber eyes opened wide. "I've been playing that game since we met, and you only complain now?"

"That's because she was so infatuated with Duran that she didn't even notice it!" the Fairy crowed.

"FAIRY!" What was this, active sabotage!

Hawk didn't show any response to the statement, but there was little surprise on his face. She had to admit, though, as much as it pained her to do so, that the Fairy hadn't spilled a huge secret there. She'd been pretty obvious at times. The thief would have had to be blind not to notice it.

It gave her an idea, though. Was that why Hawk was holding back? Did he simply overlook her recent advances in the understanding that she had so obviously liked Duran when they first met? It pained her to admit that for the first month at least of their journey, she'd had eyes for no one else. He'd even commented on it several times. Well, then, that made things much simpler! She'd just have to be more forward, to convince him that the direction of her attentions had changed! It was annoying that she hadn't thought of this possibility before - so much time wasted, because she'd assumed that the only thing she'd have to do would be to stop rebuffing the Rogue, and their usual flirting banter would get to go its full course, rather than being interrupted by a barrage of potentially lethal spells. If Hawk was still under the impression that she liked Duran, though, well of course he'd hold back - as pathetically ladies' man wannabe the desert rat could be, she'd not yet seen him pursue a taken woman. Granted, they hadn't been around that many married women, but she liked to think that the thief had at least some honour in him.

Even if the Fairy had indirectly brought this to light, the glowing nuisance had just made her position that much harder to change. The notion of her now-dead crush on Duran would be firmly planted in Hawk's mind. So now, no matter what happened, she'd look fickle, dammit!

This was it - the line had been crossed. The Magus picked up her Clenunnus Cane.

"Eeep!" The Fairy, panicking, made a half a dash for Hawk, seemed to think better of it, before zooming back towards the Princess with a speed that none of them knew the tiny deity even possessed. Angela, much to her chagrin, had been so startled by the odd choice of escape route that she couldn't react in time to thwack the Fairy before she reached sanctuary - in the skull of her foe, at that.

'GET OUT OF THERE FAIRY, SO THAT I CAN SWAT YOU LIKE YOU DESERVE!'

'No way. I'm not leaving until you promise not to kill me! Goddess's orders, don't forget!'

'I couldn't care less about Goddess's orders right now! YOU ARE SCREWING THINGS UP FOR ME!'

'It's not like he didn't know already! Even you have to admit that!'

Seething, the Princess gripped her cane tighter, sorely wishing that there was some way to forcibly eject the foreign presence from her head. What kind of crazy magic WAS that, anyway? 'We had an agreement, gnat.'

'And I kept it! I didn't say a single word about your stupid crush on Hawk, did I?'

Hawk, growing bored again, ambled over to the other side of the room to retrieve his blade before resuming twirling it in his fingers. At least he didn't start throwing it again.

'Annoying, pretentious, pain-in-the-neck INSECT!'

'At least I'm not a violent, temperamental, and let's not forget FICKLE Princess! Why the Elementals ever blessed you I'll never know!'

'HEY! Don't drag us into this!' Angela was vaguely aware of Gnome calling out from somewhere in the very back of her consciousness.

'Why can't you be more like them, huh? At least they don't go around reading my mind for fun, the spilling the contents of it for all the world to see! You keep lecturing Hawk on ethics, but how ethical is it to be constantly invading my privacy like that!'

'Like a MAGUS can talk about ethics!'

'What IS your problem with me being a Magus?'

The mental argument continued like so for quite some time, before Angela abruptly realised that she was still here in relative privacy with Hawk - with the Fairy hiding inside her own head, the glowing nuisance at least couldn't cause any further damage. She could insult the Fairy at any time of day! If she wanted to have a halfway decent conversation with Hawk - false starts included - now was the time!

'Shut up, gnat, I'll deal with you later! I have to fix up this whole thing with Hawk now!' she ordered suddenly, departing from the endless tirade of insults. The Magus was given the mental impression of the Fairy gaping at the brusque change of subject, but she didn't bother to wait for any sort of response. Driven to recklessness by the turmoil of the morning, the Princess attempted to skip the usual skirting around the subject and deal with the Fairy's damage the only way she could. "Hawk, about what the Fa-"

"I'm back!" The Princess whirled, temper ready to snap after being interrupted YET AGAIN - how dare they think they could get away with interrupting divine royalty like that? If it had been her mother in Altenan court, heads would have rolled long ago. Her anger melted into defeat, though, when she caught sight of Duran cheerfully waving at them from the doorway, almost blinding them with his shiny new armour. Fate really must against her - she should have known, fate had been against her for months now.

Hawk rolled his head back languidly, favouring the Paladin with an upside-down stare. "Wow, that was quick." They'd both expected that the knight would have spent hours browsing through the swords and armour, seeing as swords and armour were two of the very few things that could keep him occupied for any length of time.

The Paladin fidgeted nervously. "Well, the local blacksmith said that he usually only gets Beastmen for customers, so there wasn't a whole lot of choice for human-fitted armour. Even so, this is far better than the armour I had before - it fits better and everything."

"That's good then," Hawk said with a wave of his hand. Neither of them wanted to know how much the armour cost - it did look like a fine make, sporting a golden sheen with fine silver swirls on the breastplate. In fact, it strongly resembled the armour Angela had seen the Knights of Gold in Forcena wear. She couldn't help but wish the Forcenan had taken longer though - did he REALLY have to hurry back so fast?

The Fairy, on the other hand, was delighted. 'He looks more like the Mana Knight than ever!'

'And you call ME superficial,' Angela mentally grumbled. 'He's back, why don't you go hang out in HIS head, okay?'

'No way! You're just waiting for an opportunity to whack me with that cane!'

'Like that's ever stopped you before.'

'Yes, but it's THAT cane.'

The Magus promptly decided that she was keeping this cane forever. Clearly it had hidden powers beyond her comprehension. And even if she never found out what those powers were, anything that could intimidate annoying gnats into submission was worth keeping around.

"Did everyone rest up enough?" the Knight asked brightly, drawing the Princess's attention back to the outside world. "Because we probably should get going to take on the last God-Beast. We don't want it to become too powerful, after all."

"True," Hawk admitted, stretching his arms above his head. "Though at least we don't have to worry about them combining any more."

"That is a relief," Duran agreed. "What about you, Angela? Ready to go?"

The Princess waved a gloved hand in dismissal. "I'm fine. Let's get going."

So, even after an entire morning without monsters or God-Beasts to get in the way, she still hadn't managed to make any progress with the thief at all. What a waste.

Duran was the first outside, Angela standing to follow after a moment.

"Thanks, Angie," Hawk piped up unexpectedly, halting her in her tracks.

The Princess turned to stare at him dumbly. "For what?" Was he being sarcastic again?

"For asking," was his simple reply as he strolled from the inn.

Puzzled, Angela gazed at the door he'd just passed through, waiting for further clarification. None came.

"What?"

'Are you that dense? He's thanking you for your conversation earlier,' huffed the Fairy.

'Are you serious?' The Navarrian was thanking her just for asking him what his future plans were?

It was surprising, but somehow, the morning hadn't been a total loss after all.

Spirits brightened by the simple words of gratitude, the Princess left the inn with an extra spring in her step. She'd barely taken ten steps from the exit when she nearly tripped over what appeared to be a villager... sleeping in the middle of the street... without a shirt... and wearing pants that looked of a curiously similar make to the shirt Hawk was wearing now.

She threw a suspicious glance at the thief, who merely shrugged, and replied nonchalantly, "My need was greater than his."

"Let's call Flammie and get going!" Duran announced, practically glowing with purpose as their mission grew ever closer to completion.

Hawk pulled out the drum, and in a practiced twist of the wrist, swung the beaded cords to bang against the sides.

A long period of silence followed.

"Hawk...," Duran began hesitantly, "...You did fix the drum right?"

"Maybe she's sleeping?" Angela suggested.

"She's usually here instantly," the Fairy commented, obviously finally feeling safe enough to emerge, though the tiny deity wasted no time to seeking refuge on Duran's shoulder.

"Are you SURE the drum is fixed right?" the Paladin asked again. The Magus felt dread creeping up on her again. If they couldn't fix Flammie's drum...…

Hawk slapped himself on the forehead. "Ooops, silly me." Out of seemingly thin air, he produced a second drum. "That was the wrong one."

Duran blinked. "Why do you have more than one?"

That did it. No matter how enamoured she was with him, that darn desert rat had been asking for it for too long!

"Hawk?" she said in the sweetest voice she could muster.

He turned to her with an equally innocent grin. "Yes, Angie?"

"DARK FORCE!"

* * *

A cliché way to end the chapter, but there it is all the same. Hope you liked it. Please review! 


	48. The Dirtiness of Nature

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Additional warning: Updates take forever. You were warned.

Author's note: The good news is that this chapter didn't take quite as long as the last one to update (waggles eyebrows.) The bad news is that it still took over a month. I have holidays coming up pretty soon, so I'm hoping that even if I can't get entire chapters written, I should be able to get big chunks of them done so that updates don't take so long. Either way, this fic is in the home stretch now. Tune in for the next few chapters – stuff is going to happen. Cool stuff. Stuff that you most of you guys have guessed already. But it will happen none-the-less.

Response to the Reviewers! (Where I artificially inflate the length of the chapter. Whee!)

The True Tai Kamiya: I know that. I killed her anyway. I do things like that.

Cookie Pixie: Last chapter was one of the more quiet chapters. Probably the last one for a while. But I'm glad you liked it. Thanks as always for your review.

BlueMage: ….. ah, dammit, I can't do it…… (ahem)…. Freeloader1: I do enjoy confusing people. Thanks for the opportunity.

Lady Storm: Even the useless reviews are welcome! (If only to remind me that I should be working on the fic instead of checking E-Mail.) Why give up on the coffee? Embrace the caffeine I say! EMBRACE IT! …..Coffee, anyone?

Kik: By all means, try out that pickup line. I'd like to know if it would actually work on anyone.

Soriyu: Lovely cliffhanger! You wanted a lovely cliffhanger! I'LL GIVE YOU LOVELY CLIFFHANGERS! Everyone, the next three chapter ends will all be lovely cliffhangers. No no, don't thank me, thank Soriyu. (Mweh heh heh.) Thanks for the review.

Mirowood: Yes, when I was looking through chapter ends and jokes to recycle, it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't used that one for a while. Oh dear, I hope my version of the Fairy doesn't become too standard – that's almost nightmarish, that is. I left the Fairy mostly out this chapter as a sort of damage control. I don't expect I'll do an extended epilogue, given the ending note I've already chosen. Then again, this fic has already escaped my control, so no doubt it will do what it wants. Thanks for a really insightful review.

(Smiley Face): All very good questions, which I probably shouldn't answer! Thanks for the review.

LunaRyuu: Glad you liked it. :)

TenshiNoAkuma: It isn't so much an ability to combine humour and seriousness so much as an inability to be completely serious or entirely humorous, but thanks all the same. As for the Black Rabite, I can say here that I probably won't do it, mostly because it won't fit in with the flow and structure that I have planned out for the rest of the story as it stands. But hey, that's a good challenge for anyone who wants to do it. Someone out there – you have been challenged to write a Black Rabite battle scene with the word 'capitulate' in it! Come on, do it for the English class. ;)

TheOneAndOnlyT: I might. Haven't decided yet. If it works, maybe. No fear, I also hate the 'interruption of a romantic moment' standby, so if in a moment of craziness I do it, you have permission to….. um….. lash out against society in a cruel and brutal fashion. Anyhow, all of your observations were valid ones, and rest assured that I have been planning to deal with all of those issues you mentioned in due time. Yeah, sorry about that extended delay – believe me, I know what it's like having to wait for updates too, so I really am doing the best I can.

Bitter green tea: That does it. Everyone is psychic. Clearly I need to update quicker, so people have less time to dwell on each chapter. Thanks for the review! Actually, yeah, it will be weird for me too when this fic finishes. It has become a monster! We're not there yet, though. ;)

Nightmares Hell Queen: Every two weeks? Gee, you EARN these chapters. Thanks!

(Rubs hands together maniacally.) Okay, enough drivel from me! I hope you enjoy the chapter.

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**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 48 – The Dirtiness of Nature

By Sinnatious

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Considering some of the places they'd been lately, Lampflower Forest really was quite a peaceful stroll in the woods. Actually, they had to do very little strolling at all, as Flammie had removed most of their navigational problems that the oddly uniform piece of nature presented by dropping them most conveniently just a spell's throw away from Dior. Either way, they'd stood there for a good couple of minutes without being attacked by anything, which was disconcerting, because it seemed almost natural to have something lunging for their throats every five minutes these days.

The Fairy was obviously grumpy about something and was sulking in Duran's head, as she had not yet appeared to hurry them on their way. Having enjoyed six near death experiences so far, none of them were particularly keen to get started on their seventh, though Angela grudgingly admitted to herself that her reluctance was mostly due her newfound desire to spend a whole lot more time with Hawk. While they were on this quest, responsibilities to the outside world - beyond the whole 'saving it' thing - became unimportant, and the future itself was so far detached from their moment-to-moment survival that it became impossible to comprehend what might happen mere days from now, much less months or years.

The change was interesting, as previously she couldn't wait to get the entire affair over and done with - she'd originally been hoping, in a fit of naiveté that ashamed her now, to spend nothing more than a couple of weeks acquiring her long-sought magic, then she would make a triumphant return to Altena, defeat Koren, and be welcomed back with open arms by her mother. Admittedly, at the time of the plan's formation, her brain had been slightly addled by nearly freezing to death in the Sub-Zero snowfields. Either way, she had been terribly impatient to get the whole affair over with and extremely frustrated when the High Priest of Wendel had sent them on that wild rabite chase to all of the Mana Stones. Now though, she reflected as she idly toed the lush grass, she'd be sad for the journey to end.

The silence stretched a little longer, and still nothing attacked them. No one made any suggestion of leaving the clearing. There was still no sign of the Fairy hurrying them up, either.

"I can't believe you were actually going to try and sell imitation copies of Flammie's drum on the Black Market," the Princess finally grumbled at Hawk, mostly to break the eerie silence.

"As children's toys only, of course," the Navarrian said innocently.

"Suuuuuuure. Mothers regularly go toy shopping at the Black Market."

"Some thieves have families they go home to as well, you know."

"That must go down really well at 'bring your parents to school' day," she muttered.

Silence again. It was rare that the Magus ever got the last word in any conversation with the Rogue, so she spent a few moments savoring the feeling.

"Do you think we should drop by Elf City Dior while we're here?" Duran piped up. "We might be able to pick up some clues on the God-Beast from them."

Angela shuddered. "I doubt it. They might've been civil to us because of the Fairy, but their dislike of humans is pretty obvious. It'd be hard enough just to get one to stop and talk - to get any actual answers out of them would be nigh impossible." Besides, there was that little matter that somewhere in that village there were some distant relatives of Carlie, and she'd rather not get to know any of them if she could at all help it.

"They weren't THAT bad, Angie," Hawk pointed out, but he was clearly thinking along the same lines, as a moment later he added, "There's no real need to bother them more than necessary, though. I'm sure we're more than capable of finding Mispolm on our own."

Silence AGAIN. Where WAS all the murderous wildlife? There was a supposed to be a God-Beast and clouds of twisted Mana around! That usually had a significant side effect on the local flora and fauna!

"I guess we should get going then," Duran sighed, hefting his new shield from his back onto his arm.

"Guess so," Angela murmured dejectedly. She spent a moment adjusting her gloves before setting out after her two companions.

There were a few rustles in the bushes here and there as they left the familiarity of the Lampflower Forest and headed deeper into the heart of the Forest of Wonder, but still nothing attacked them. It was possible that the wildlife in this area actually had a shred of self-preservation instinct and recognised that a Magus, Paladin and Rogue were definitely NOT on anyone's menu, but by now even Duran had developed a pessimistic streak.

Despite their conviction that the other shoe was bound to drop at any moment, the Princess found it hard to keep her guard up when confronted with such stunning natural beauty. This was nature completely untouched by any form of civilization at all. The trees were not quite as large or the flora as lush as that in the Mana Holyland, but it was the closest she'd seen yet on regular land. Warm streams of sunlight filtered through the thick canopy of leaves, and even the semblance of a path that had been worn through the trees by the local wildlife was encroached upon by the massive, twisting roots of the trees around them.

It was almost too MUCH nature. Angela was as appreciative of natures' wonders as the next person, but this was really asking a lot of a Princess brought up in one of the world's largest and richest cities. She grimaced as she half tripped over yet another protruding root.

Surprisingly enough, that moment of clumsiness very nearly saved her life. She said 'very nearly', as the arrow that whizzed through the air where she'd been a mere moment ago probably wouldn't have killed the Magus, but it would have certainly sparked a reaction extreme enough to make its owner wish it did.

Ah, the foolish local wildlife had made its move at last.

"Robin Hoods!" Hawk warned, throwing a silver dart into the bushes. A moment later, their foe fell face-first onto the path, apparently dead. It was very similar to the Chobits that they'd see in the Lampflower Forest, only darker, bigger, and the bow it clutched in its paw wasn't quite so crude.

Off to their right more leaves rustled. Acting purely on instinct, Angela whirled and delivered a fireball that was probably larger than necessary at it. The smoke cleared to reveal the charred corpses of several more of the glorified squirrels.

"Jeez, Angie, don't be setting the forest on fire," the Navarrian advised, twirling his blades briefly but keeping them in the open.

"It would make our lives much easier, though," Duran mused. Both the Paladin and Rogue winced simultaneously after the comment. Angela stared at them questioningly.

"Dryad didn't much like that suggestion," Hawk explained, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Neither did the Fairy," the Forcenan agreed sheepishly. The Princess resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

They continued on at a much faster pace after that. If anything, it was easiest to track the God-Beast by the amount of weird wildlife attacking them. One of the few patterns that had persisted as they searched for each God-Beast was the increased aggressiveness of the local fauna. The Princess, applying about three lessons' worth of magical theory she'd actually paid attention in, figured it was likely the unstable Mana upsetting the natural balance as it had been doing for months.

So they pressed on, being regularly attacked by Robin Hoods, fungi of a much more threatening size and colour than the more benign variety commonly found along the so-called Golden Road, giant caterpillars with some mean looking spikes that she'd never want to risk getting lodged in her eyes, and bees that were wearing... armour?

Unstable Mana did some odd things to the natural balance indeed. What next? Living slime? Vampire Fairies? Bright purple wolves?

Then almost as suddenly as the ferocious attacks on them started, they stopped. Silence once again pervaded their surroundings. Angela wanted to believe that all the crazy creatures had finally learned their lesson and had started leaving them alone. However, that little pessimistic voice that had been growing so much louder of late was quite clear in suggesting to her that the only reason for the sudden stillness was that they were near something much, much worse.

"That is most definitely not a positive sign," Hawk announced, eyes flitting about nervously.

"It never is," Angela grunted, hefting her Clenunnus Cane into a more battle ready position, prepared for anything to take her by surprise.

Duran was more focused on continuing along their present path. "Where did all these vines come from?" he wondered out loud, even as he hacked a path through them.

The Rogue stayed back, observing them with a paranoid eye. "I've seen them throughout the Forest as we've been going. They've been getting thicker as we continue in deeper, though."

Not wanting to stay in one place for long in this sudden eerie tranquillity, the Magus assisted the Paladin's passage with a quick Fireball, burning the way through the thick tangle of vines blocking the path. It wasn't until later that the Princess would remember that the fire didn't seem to spread as it normally would; the flames only searing through the foliage where the spell was at its most intense.

The next clearing they entered was certainly quite a different sight from the rest of the Forest of Wonder. It seemed much darker for one, though that may have been because of the curtain of vines that surrounding the entire clearing. Of course, it also held that big giant feature plant that she'd never seen before in ANY herbalist's textbook.

"Does that... pumpkin... have a face?" Duran asked nervously.

Angela stared at the giant pumpkin sitting atop a thick tree stump that was almost buried under that carpet of thick green vines. There was no doubt - that giant vegetable certainly had facial features. Very very creepy facial features at that. Those... eyes, if you could call them that, and that mouth, were definitely the sort worn by folks widely recognized as evil. Had some disturbed Robin Hoods taken up carving pumpkins?

Then it moved.

Both Magus and Paladin jumped back in shock, Angela barely managing to conceal an undignified squeak. For a second, the Princess was convinced that her eyes were playing tricks on her. It hadn't been a very big movement; could she have imagined it? The stress was bound to get to them eventually.

Hawk, on the other hand, had already slid into a battle ready stance. "Mispolm," he growled.

Was he serious? It didn't seem right that the God-Beast of Wood would be... well, just SITTING there. That wasn't how God-Beasts traditionally worked in their experience, and as far as experience with God-Beasts went, it was safe to say that the trio were currently world experts. All of the others had big flashy entrances that would probably cause heart attacks among most unhealthy folk, and even the God-Beast of Light in its grotesque half-formed shape was slightly menacing, if only for its sheer size. If this really was Mispolm, it admittedly had something that resembled a face and definitely looked creepy, but it reminded Angela much too acutely of the party lanterns children would make out of pumpkins for her to take it too seriously. Actually, the mere fact that the God-Beast appeared to BE a giant pumpkin made it very difficult to take seriously.

Another moment later the ground nearby exploded as a pair of huge stalks erupted from the ground, turning to face them and waving menacingly. At the height of the two stalks were another two brightly coloured bulbs, both featuring mean little eyes and mouths ringed with small, sharp teeth.

Now that was a little more like it. It was still hard to say that she was particularly intimidated though. Assuming that the massive pumpkin with the creepy face was the 'core' of the God-Beast, it looked to be relatively easy to destroy - the Magus estimated that she could probably do it with a single decent spell. At least, it didn't APPEAR to be as heavily armoured as some of the previous God-Beasts had been.

One of the stalks swished close and snapped warningly at them. Angela stepped backwards calmly, still sizing up their opponent.

She paused when her foot met resistance.

"Angie, watch out!" Hawk yelled in warning. The Altenan looked down to realise that a rather innocuous-looking vine was wrapped around her foot. Curiosity was replaced by panic when a mere moment later, she felt another beginning to curl around her neck.

The Rogue's throwing daggers sliced swiftly and cleanly through the offending foliage, Angela shaking the remains off as if they burnt. They slithered like snakes back into the undergrowth, joining the tangle of now ominous growth.

The sinking feeling of horror that she regularly associated with God-Beasts began to settle in at last, as the Magus looked around the Forest and finally realised just where all those vines were coming from. It had been hours ago when they'd first seen them! Was the God-Beast trying to BECOME a forest in itself!

Shaking her head as though to clear it, the Princess brandished her cane again. It hardly mattered. In the end, the God-Beast's core was poorly defended. They could handle a few living vines. At this stage, she liked to think that they could handle quite a lot of them. Which was good, because they looked to be in ridiculous supply. If they weren't careful, they could easily waste their energy keeping them at bay.

One shot, then. One clean shot to finish Mispolm, and stop this battle before it even started.

Hawk obviously had the same idea. "Go for it, Angie! Before it gets any ideas!"

Wasting no time, Angela shouted, "FIRE BALL!"

She hadn't put everything into the spell, but as fireballs went, it was a pretty good one. The Magus watched in satisfaction as the spell bore down on the God-Beast.

Naturally, it couldn't be that easy.

Satisfaction quickly turned to confusion when her Fire Ball seemed to disappear into a shimmer of green light, not even metres from its destination. Eventually, confusion gave way to horror as the Magus finally recognised what had happened.

"A Magic Shield!" There was no way! That was just cheating! Maybe she just imagined it. Gathering even more of her energy into the spell, the Princess let loose again. "FIRE BALL!"

Again, Salamando's magic splashed uselessly against a faint green shimmering translucent barrier. Oh boy, it really WAS a magic shield. Mispolm was looking entirely too pleased with itself. So much for the 'one shot' idea. She'd forgotten how God-Beasts had a tendency to surprise you at the worst possible times.

"Axe Bomber!" Hawk called out to her left. Blinking stupidly, the Princess watched in dumb fascination as the axe that the Rogue had pulled out of who-knew-where - that HAD to be uncomfortable - sailed through the air, encountering no resistance whatsoever, before lodging in the orange shell of the God-Beast and exploding.

The smoke cleared to reveal a shallow wound on Mispolm's pumpkin-esque exterior. Now that was REALLY unfair. Not wanting to be outdone, Angela cast a powerful Holy Ball. Again, it met the shimmering green shield.

It really WAS just spells that couldn't get through. On the bright side, that meant that not all was lost. Still, the Princess couldn't help but be temporarily stunned by the fact that she had suddenly been rendered useless. What was she supposed to do now? In these sorts of situations, her cane wasn't really useful for anything other than defence, and she'd be damned before she'd wind up being relegated to the distraction again.

Duran was darting forward with his sword, slashing at the core, but was continually forced backwards by the two vicious stalks that stood guard, snapping at him every time he came too close. Hawk was almost a blur in the background, his endlessly dancing blades keeping the creeping vines at bay. He seemed to have that situation under control, so after taking a moment to compose herself, Angela went to assist the Paladin.

"Oi! Over here, you glorified vegetable!" she called. Great. She wound up being the distraction after all.

They'd never quite been able to figure out if God-Beasts could understand human words or not, but either way, moments later she had both stalks with their bulbous yellow heads, mean little eyes and sharp, sharp teeth diving towards her. She sidestepped one gracefully, mentally thanking her second class change, and thwacked the other with her cane as hard she could. It didn't seem do anything more than daze it, but it put it out of commission long enough for Duran to dart in and slash at Mispolm's core a couple more times. The second stalk seemed to snarl at her, wavering between attacking her or the Forcenan.

"Guys?" Hawk's voice sounded a little strained.

Angela turned, barely able to dodge the whipping vines that came lashing through the clearing. The Navarrian was still in the thick of them, but obviously the sheer volume had become too much for him to hold back, and he'd been forced into defending only himself, allowing others to slip past and attack the other two. Duran's sword cut a swathe through the green tangle as the Magus burnt the ones nearby to a crisp with several well-placed fireballs, then absently whacked one of the teethed stalks away again with her cane.

Only too late, though, did it occur to the trio that dealing with the vines had left them wide open and vulnerable to an attack from behind.

The Princess turned, a warning forming on her lips too late. Flying towards Duran was a small, greenish, and entirely innocent looking pumpkin... that promptly exploded.

Coughing and waving a gloved hand to clear the foul-smelling smoke, Angela made her way blindly towards the knight. It looked like he'd taken the full brunt of the blast. They could only hope that his armour had adequately protected him.

The smoke finally cleared to reveal Duran, sprawled on the ground, covered in soot and most definitely unconscious. Grand. There went their healer. Now what were they supposed to do! It was a situation eerily reminiscent of their battle against Fiegmund.

Wait... she still had at least one of those weird potions from those damn merchant cats! Spying her opportunity, the Princess dove forward and dragged the unconscious Mana Knight out of harm's way, Hawk moving forward to take Mispolm's attention.

Fumbling with the cork on the potion, she placed the knight's head in her lap, tilting it with one hand and pouring the sparkly blue liquid down into his slackened mouth with the other. She massaged his throat until she was sure he swallowed, keeping a paranoid eye out for attacks from the God-Beast.

The Paladin didn't stir, but last time the potion hadn't been exactly instant either. She mentally urged him to hurry and wake up, barely able to contain herself from running to help Hawk as she saw one of the stalks bite onto the Navarrian's shoulder, lifting him clear from the ground before he plunged one of his daggers into its left eye. It released him with a shriek, and the thief thudded to the ground, rolling away swiftly to avoid another of Mispolm's green pumpkin bombs.

"Dammit, Duran, wake up already!" she urged, blasting away several vines that had been creeping towards them with a swift Holy Ball. Nearby, Hawk staggered to his feet, clutching the shoulder with the bite wound, before doggedly darting towards Mispolm's core yet again.

A moment later, she was relieved to see the Paladin's eyes flutter open. He still seemed a little out of it - the potion was several weeks old, did those things have expiry dates? "Angela?"

"Can you stand?" she asked urgently, eager to rejoin the battle.

"You're so beautiful.…," he whispered.

"Of course I am," she replied absently, dragging the dazed Mana Knight to his feet. She directed her cane at some more encroaching vines. "Fire Ball!"

Hawk was still fighting nearby, but he didn't seem to be in the greatest shape. One eye was closed to protect it from the blood trickling from a shallow wound on his forehead, and his left arm was bloodied and hanging limply, injured to the point where it had been rendered useless. Taking on a God-Beast alone for any length of time wasn't a good idea - it was a brutal reminder of how reliant on teamwork these battles were.

"Come on, Duran, Hawk can't hold up by himself much longer. Can you give him a quick cure spell?" urged the Magus.

Finally, the Paladin's gaze seemed to clear. "Oh, of course!" Then he paused, his eyes widening in alarm. "Angela! My magic! It's all gone!"

"WHAT! What do you mean, all gone!"

"I feel like I've been casting spells all day! There's not even enough left for a decent cure spell!"

The Princess glanced at Mispolm in dismay. That green pumpkin bomb... it couldn't have... was it even possible to damage someone's magic?

Only then did Angela recall that she hadn't replenished her supply of magical herbs for quite some time. Ever since their second class change, it hadn't been an issue, so she'd forgotten. It simply wasn't possible, at this stage, to imagine that swirling torrent of magical power ever completely running out. Even some of her newer spells hadn't managed to completely deplete her magical endurance. Duran and Hawk hadn't yet seemed to magically exhaust themselves, either.

That meant... they had to fight the rest of the battle without Duran's cure magic!

The day just kept getting better and better.

Hawk's movements seemed to be slowing back down to a speed that was more human, now apparently having abandoned his assault on Mispolm and instead focusing on keeping the vines and stalks at bay with only one arm functioning. "Guys?" he called out in a strangled voice. "A little help? Please?"

"Hawk!" Angela exclaimed, racing to his assistance. She cast a quick Air Blast, pushing the vines and stalks back for a moment. Mispolm seemed to pause, regarding them with as much scrutiny as a giant pumpkin could. The trio took to the brief lull in the battle as a chance to catch their breath, Duran still attempting to cast a cure spell, with no progress. The Princess regarded the God-Beast of Wood with a wary eye, as it seemed to be sparkle green for just a moment. What was it doing?

"We need to get past those damn stalks and vines," Hawk muttered, dropping to one knee briefly.

"And that magic shield," the Magus agreed. So far, they hadn't been able to inflict much more than several shallow wounds on Mispolm's core.

"Watch out!" Duran warned as the God-Beast renewed its attack, vines and stalks advancing on them at an alarming speed.

"Dammit! Fire Ball!" The Princess burnt away the nearest vines, side-stepping others, panic setting in as more replaced them almost immediately. There were too many! She covered her face reflexively as the living foliage slapped across her arms and legs with unforgiving force, the thick ones knocking the air from her lungs and the thinner ones leaving stinging shallow cuts. Her panic only grew when with each impact, she felt a little more of her magic drain away.

It was that same crazy magic! Just like that weird sabre magic Dolan had used, only this stole your very magic!

It was official. The Princess had been put off nature forever. She hadn't been terribly fond of the usual... well, dirtiness of nature in the first place, nor the whole experience of sleeping under the stars, or the various bugs and animals that regularly tried to eat you, but this clinched it.

Diving clear of the tangle and firing off another Air Blast to keep them at bay, time seemed to slow down as the Magus wheeled on Mispolm's core. Its strange carved features seemed to be grinning crazily at them, cocooned safely behind its magic shield and animated plants. It couldn't continue like this! At this rate, none of them would have any magic left, and it was becoming quickly clear that they couldn't win this battle with sword alone.

The Princess's frustration continued to mount. This stupid God-Beast! They'd killed six of its comrades - there was no way that this one would get the better of them! She'd show it! Show it the mightiest fireball of all time, that is!

She didn't bother holding back as she poured more and more of her magic into the spell - if she didn't get it with this one, then all of her magic would be sucked away anyway. Salamando's power danced within her, growing brighter and brighter. It would be the biggest fireball EVER, and that God-Beast would learn not to cheat!

NOW!

The Magus released the spell, almost skidding backwards from the force as she fired off the massive orb of fire. In those precious seconds, she realised that what she had let loose wasn't a fireball at all. "GET DOWN!" she yelled. Hawk and Duran, knowing by now to take those words to heart whenever spoken, dove to the dirt, arms covering their heads protectively. The Princess barely had the time to follow her own advice, flattening her body against the ground and squeezing her eyes shut.

Then the fireball exploded. In a big way.

The light was searing even through tightly shut eyelids. The explosion was deafening. Angela felt a wave of searing heat pass over her, followed almost immediately by a rumbling shockwave. Dust and tiny speckles of debris rained down upon them. It seemed like an eternity passed before they dared raise their heads to see the damage.

Mispolm wasn't looking quite so happy now. Apparently the spell had not only ripped straight through the magic shield, doing a decent amount of damage to the core, but had also managed to reduce all of the stalks and vines to nothing more than ash.

All of a sudden, the God-Beast of Wood was nothing more than a giant pumpkin sitting in the middle of a clearing.

Duran was the first to react. Clambering to his feet hurriedly, he ran full pelt at the God-Beast. His sword began to glow, then shine. No longer forced back by any carnivorous foliage, he plunged it into the face of the God-Beast with a cry, burying it up to its hilt.

"LIGHT FLASH BLADE!"

The glare of white light grew, shining out of the eyes and mouth of the now-dismayed monstrosity of Mana, before it exploded into a blinding flash.

Angela blinked, temporarily stunned by the intense light. As her vision came back to her, chunks of pumpkin - even now it still seemed ridiculous for a God-Beast's form - fell from the sky, splattering around them. Where once Mispolm rested, there was now nothing. The sickly feeling they'd now come to associate with dissipating unstable Mana passed over them, signalling their foe's demise.

They'd done it. They had really done it. They'd killed the last God-Beast.

Once again, it appeared the Dryad had understated her own worth as an Elemental - they had expected the battle with the God-Beast of Wood to be much more fearsome than the one with Dolan, but it had actually felt slightly easier, and it was certainly their shortest yet. Whether they were settling into their class change at last or the God-Beast had simply emerged from its Stone at a later date was subject to question, but either way, the battle had been strangely anti-climatic.

Angela examined the feeling, and decided that she liked it.

The forest was perfectly still - not even the barest whisper of breeze passed through the treetops. The only audible sound was that of their own harsh breathing, then the clink of metal as Duran sheathed his sword.

"Light Flash Blade?" Angela echoed out loud, piercing the sudden silence.

The Paladin shrugged. "Well, that's kind of what it is."

She shrugged, standing and dusting herself off with a wince. "What now? We've finished off the God-Beasts," she asked. She had expected the Fairy to come barrelling out at that comment, but perhaps Duran's knock on the head had left the little parasite feeling woozy.

"We should celebrate!" Hawk announced, seeming awfully cheerful for someone whose face was half covered in pumpkin and blood.

The Paladin seemed to mull over that, no doubt thinking about all the parts of his quest as a Mana Knight that hadn't been finished, but in the end, he conceded. "We could probably spare ourselves a short break."

Angela stretched, trying to work out the knots in her sore muscles. "I think... that we should go to an inn. And not just the closest one. A really NICE one."

"The inn in Forcena was pretty comfortable," the Rogue suggested. "And it's one of the few that won't try to arrest us on sight."

It was time to run a mental checklist. Hot water, nice food, proper, civilized beds and mirrors in the girls' bathroom. There was even a bar downstairs. It filled all of the most important requirements. "Forcena it is! Let's go. Now."

"Um... are you sure you two are okay to ride Flammie like that?" Duran interjected with a worried look on his face.

Only now did some of the aches and pains she felt begin to register with the Princess. She was covered with dozens of stinging shallow cuts, and already some bruises were beginning to gain colour here and there. Feeling her side gingerly, she was suspicious that she might have broken some ribs, though she seemed to be having difficulty remembering when exactly that happened - it had come to the point where they only really noticed the most severe of their injuries during battle now. Duran had fared slightly better, having enjoyed the benefit of their only healing potion, and Hawk was a bloody mess. Obviously his lack of armour combined with his close-range fighting style had ramifications.

"Can you use any cure magic yet?" asked the Princess feebly. The Knight had a point. None of their injuries were particularly life threatening, but riding Flammie in this state was suicidal.

The Paladin frowned, then shook his head. "I can't. I'll need a good night's sleep before I can cast any spells."

"What about asking Wisp directly?" Hawk asked, still clutching his bleeding left shoulder, no longer looking quite so cheerful.

"It wouldn't matter. Whether they cast the spell or we do, they're using our magic to do it," answered the Magus in Duran's place. Mentally, she cursed. They'd become used to having Wisp's cure magic on hand to fix them up after battles. The longer they left their wounds, the harder they would be to heal using magic, as well. If only they had some magic herbs, or some quick-cure potions - ANYTHING.

In the silence, they were surprised to suddenly hear two extra voices.

"I think we are quite lost, Chiquita. We'll never find any customers out here!"

"Nonsense! A good merchant can find customers ANYWHERE!"

"This forest certainly has seen better days, though. Are you certain it is safe?"

"It seems safe enough. Though it is a tad messy. Oh!"

Stumbling into the clearing came two rather familiar furry faces. The Magus could see their faces positively light up at sight of the bedraggled trio.

"See, what did I tell you! Here come our very best customers right now!"

Those darn merchant cats WERE stalking them. Just for once, though, Angela couldn't be happier about it.

Wait a minute…. Had Duran called her beautiful?

* * *

Mwa ha ha hahahaha! Please review. 


	49. Saving the World is Rather Expensive

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. The author takes some more creative license. You were warned.

Author's note: We approach the threshold of actual plot progression! I was going to have several big events happen in this chapter (hence it's record length) but due to continuity issues that had to be dealt with, it grew too long and besides, having cool things happen in Chapter 50 appeals to my sense of theatre. That's also partially the reason for the longer (though this is almost the norm these days, sadly) wait for this chapter – I was trying to cram things in too early, but then I had a brainwave which caused a brief restructuring of the next few chapters. Next chapter is already plotted out. Hopefully restructuring will not happen again, though I make no promises.

On a side note, I noticed that in the last chapter, FFnet seemed to take joy in correcting my grammar for me – specifically by removing the question mark whenever I used a question mark and exclamation mark together. Maybe I WAS breaking some obscure grammatical rule, but all I know is that there were a bunch of questions that weren't phrased as such at the end of the day. How long has this been going on? What sort of strange bug is this that even the ever-helpful (cough cough) MSword lets it through but FFnet doesn't? Most mysterious. So my apologies for that – I only became aware of it the other day. No one has complained about it, though, so hopefully it's not too noticeable. Ye gads, now that I've mentioned it, EVERYONE will notice it. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.

And one last piece of business before I get to Response to the Reviewers – have all you chickens out there heard about World of Mana? At last the mighty Square Enix revives the beloved Seiken Densetsu series! On more than one platform, to boot. All I can say is: FINALLY!

Response to the Reviewers: (This chapter's is a lengthy affair, so feel free to scroll down to the start of the chapter)

Damyan Aerth: Hey, thanks for such an in-depth review, the feedback was all very useful to me, and there were a couple of issues I hadn't given proper attention to before. Not that I can change much at this stage of the game, but it's good to know :). Readers like yourself keep me on my toes. Actually, the final classes were decided by a vote some thirty chapters ago back before the first class change – I was lucky in a way that everyone voted Angela as a Magus, because it would have been rather tricky to write her with this personality as a Grandevina. I'll be sure to drop by Black Core (shameless plugs for everyone!)

j0: Thanks for the carrot. I give you potato. Special potato of love.

Sesshi: Sequel to Another Witchmaker – STEAM BOY. :)

Terra: Sweet? Most people would call me either crazy or lonely, but hey, thanks! Good to see you again. Hmm, it's been a while since I've been by the boards, it's been hard enough to find time to write, much less visit the forums, though I do miss them now you mention it. Thanks for the review.

Cookie Pixie: You were only a couple off the 700th review, actually…. Wait, 700 reviews? Wow. Thanks guys. That's awesome. Though I expect you must own about forty of those, Cookie Pixie, so special thanks to you for sticking with me despite my increasingly horrendous update times. :)

Bitter Green Tea: Well, you'll probably need to wait another chapter before the REAL truth comes out, but yes, we are getting to the meat of the story now. Heh heh heh… thanks for the review!

Demonic Dragon of Ra: Okay. I can do that. I'll do it just for you! (Actually, I was going to do it anyway, but I may as well get some cake, right?) I'm holding you to that! I don't take promises of cake lightly. :)

NaImpChupone: Thanks!

Ace.sodapop: I'm afraid that not all of your wishes will come true, but at least one of them is going to! No really, no need to thank me. That's what the author is here for.

LunaRyuu: Late reactions happen to be one of my specialities. I'm amazed you guys have been this patient with me, really. The pace picks up (sort of) after this chapter. I know, I keep promising, but hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. (Watch as Sinnatious falls back on overused proverbs in her exhaustion).

(Smiley Face): Indeed. Mind you, if I were a big, squash-able bee in a hostile forest, I'd probably want armour too.

Lone Ronin: Ah, someone who understands. Thank you for your understanding. Actually, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm hoping for 55 chapters, but it'll almost certainly wind up being 60. No more, though! (I'm never writing a fic this long EVER AGAIN.)

Lady Storm: Thanks for the (scratches head)….. pre-emptive review? Gee, I hope that after all that, you didn't hate it.

The True Tai Kamiya: Come on! Not even Angela would mix love dust in with a potion in the middle of a God-Beast battle. Or wait… maybe she would.

Shin-Ryu Warrior: Thanks for the review.

XyoushaX: Another new reviewer! Welcome. Ah, well then, if you can't tell whether Hawk is complimenting or making fun of Angela, then my goal has been achieved. Hooray! Glad you like it, and thanks for the review.

TenshiNoAkuma: Hmm, I can't think of anything to say either. –insert regular gratitude for review and generous offers of food here-

Mirowood: LOL, thanks. It was hard to make Mispolm, quite a ridiculous God-Beast in my opinion, actually menacing, so I'm glad it paid off.

TheOneAndOnlyT: And the update time slides back again. Sorry, I really was intending on this chapter being out ages ago, but it proved a tricky chapter. At least it's a long one, ne? That was a really long and in-depth review, thanks, it was really good feedback.

WaterDragonerS: That makes two of us. I don't think I'll top chapter 38. Except for Chapter 50! EVERYONE'S going to like Chapter 50. (Well, probably not, but it seemed like an optimistic thing to say.) Always happy to hear from you: thanks for your review!

Shade-Duelist: Holy cow, 120 chapters? You're crazy! I admire that in a person. I could never, ever, EVER do that. As it is, this one has become waaaaay too long for my tastes.

Soriyu: This one's not such a bad cliffhanger, but if you like cliffhangers, good things are coming you way soon! Not to worry, I won't be stopping this fic… well, I will when I finish it…. Uh oh.

Woooo, that was a long response to the reviewers, because I love you all so very much. Here's a super-long chapter, to make up for the wait.

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 49 – Saving the World Is Surprisingly Expensive

By Sinnatious

* * *

Angela replayed that one moment over again in her head, convinced that she must have heard wrong. No, she hadn't been mistaken. Duran HAD called her beautiful.

She didn't quite know what to think about that. The Princess didn't need this kind of complication right now! It had been in the middle of a God-Beast battle! It was probably the stupid obviously-out-of-date potion talking! Besides, she KNEW that she was beautiful! Duran saying that meant nothing!

Hawk and Duran began the usual bartering with the pair of travelling merchants as Angela stared blankly into space, using all of her admittedly limited self-control to remain at least outwardly calm. As was typical with merchants, they'd seen that their need was great, and so had risen prices to ridiculous sums accordingly. A few threats of the same sort of spell that had cleared their immediate patch of forest managed to bring the prices down a little, but in the end, they still wound up paying a ludicrous sum for a handful of magic herbs and quick-cure potions. It was fortunate that the pair of sales cats obviously hadn't linked their best customers with the mysterious theft of their money in the desert - it was Navarre, after all, and no merchant could expect to leave without some losses.

Once Duran had ingested some of magic herbs, he healed them up as best he could; Angela noted with some trepidation that once again he laid a hand on her shoulder to heal her wounds. The contact wasn't really necessary for the healing magic to work - nor had it been when they fought Dolan. How long had she missed the signs?

Shaking her head as though to clear it, she gave the Paladin a weak smile in thanks, before brusquely turning to Hawk and ordering him to call Flammie.

Denial was impossible. Goddess damn it, Duran had developed a crush on her.

How long had it been going on? Before Dolan, she figured, mentally replaying all of their exchanges back in her head. Maybe even as far back as Fiegmund. Knowing her incredibly abysmal luck, it had probably been the exact instant she had realised she had fallen for Hawk. She had become so used to never receiving any positive signs from the dim-witted knight at all that she probably wouldn't have even noticed when he DID start exhibiting promising behaviour.

The white dragon landed with a bray and a powerful gust of wind. The merchant cats once again proved their resilience by not even looking surprised as the incredibly cute beast arrived. Though in all fairness, it wasn't the first time they'd seen Flammie.

"Magnificent!" exclaimed the merchant who by now they figured to be Chiquita. "Where did you get it? How much would it cost!"

Angela rolled her eyes, climbing aboard the white dragon's back. Duran followed a moment later, the Magus noting that he once again sat closer than was absolutely necessary. He was still far more gentlemanly than what Hawk ever was, but then, she EXPECTED such behaviour from the Navarrian. From the Paladin, after so many failures at piquing his interest, it bordered more on being creepy.

"Oh, Flammie isn't for sale," Hawk assured them. At their disappointed faces, though, he whipped out one of the imitation drums he had made back in Mintos. "BUT I do have something that you can call her with! If you use this drum, she'll come, every time! Which is far more convenient in the end, because you don't have to feed her or find her shelter - she does it all herself! Right now, because of this end of the world business, we need exclusive access, but I'm a generous man - I'm willing to sell you our ONLY spare drum for only twenty thousand Luc! On the condition, of course, that you wait until the world is saved before making any use of it. How does that sound?"

"Ludicrous," Angela muttered under her breath. Utterly ridiculous. That was quite possibly the biggest, not to mention the most obvious, scam she'd heard come out of the thief's mouth yet. Someone trusting and naive like Kevin might agree to it, but even that was a stretch. Cunning merchants such as these, whose entire business was conning people, would never fall for it.

Chiquita frowned. "Twenty thousand is awfully expensive, especially if there's a waiting period. We won't pay more than ten thousand."

"Eighteen thousand, and we agree to cease all casual use once our current business is finished."

"We don't know how long this end-of-the-world business is going to last, do we? It could be ages before we have a return on our investment. Under those conditions, we might be willing to pay thirteen thousand."

"Very well, we'll put a time frame on it. At one month, you may begin use, whether the world is going to end or not."

"Haw-," Duran was interrupted by Angela's elbow digging sharply into his ribs.

"If we haven't finished off this business by the end of the month, it'll be too late anyway," she hissed under her breath.

"But-"

"Either way, it's a FAKE, Duran. We need the money."

"King Richard will almost certainly cover our costs at Forcena's inn!" Obviously his decency and morals - or possibly the shiny gnat currently residing in his head - were getting the better of him again.

"But nothing else! We're always short on cash! We need every Luc we can get!" All the same, the Princess was a little amazed that the white dragon whose services were currently being bartered wasn't kicking up more of a fuss over it. Then again, the overgrown kitten did have an exceptional fondness for the Rogue, so quite possibly trusted him blindly.

It looked like the deal was finally closing. The merchant cats seemed to be having a heated discussion amongst themselves, before the grey one finally turned back to them. "Very well, those terms and conditions for seventeen thousand. Our final offer."

"It's a deal," Hawk said. It was an amusing sight, watching con artists get conned. The Princess really did want to know where the Rogue learnt this stuff.

The Navarrian finally joined them, the travelling merchants waving cheerily as they took off into the sky. For what it was worth, Hawk waited until they were out of sight before yelling, "See, Angie? I told you someone would buy one!"

Even Duran was having trouble suppressing his chuckles from his seat at the back. Not even bothering to hide her own smirk, Angela leaned forward so that Hawk could hear her voice over the howling wind without having to shout. "Why make them wait? Why not just sell them the dupe and be done with it? They're going to find out that you've tricked them either way."

"My dearest Angie, we don't know when we might need some more of their exclusive wares! Besides, in my experience, when you've just ripped someone off for an incredible sum of money, it's best to very quickly put as much distance as is possible between you."

She flicked him on the shoulder, shaking her head in wonder. The thief never ceased to amuse her.

A short stretch of time later they landed outside of Forcena's inn. Night was beginning to fall, so hopefully this time around they wouldn't be experiencing any weird sleeping hours that dragon-lag coupled with sheer exhaustion tended to produce. This time Angela insisted on separate rooms. Forcena was one of the few inns that actually had enough individual rooms to accommodate them, fortunately - the Princess cited celebration as a good enough reason for the extra expense, even though she had never really complained about having all the beds in one room before. However, as much as she may enjoy sharing a room with Hawk, it also meant sharing with the Paladin, and that was something she was intent on avoiding until she could figure out an appropriate reaction to this potentially messy situation. Luckily enough rooms were free, so she cheerfully bade her companions good evening.

She luxuriated in a long bath, washing all the blood and dirt from herself and then her clothes. Even then the Magus didn't feel completely clean - she'd take another in the morning, she decided. It seemed like forever since she'd been treated to a proper bath - cold showers courtesy of Undine's magic just didn't cut it.

The bed was the most comfortable she could remember, too. Coming to Forcena for a rest was the best decision they'd made yet. As celebrations went, she mused, her eyes drooping closed, it wasn't exactly typical, but it felt glorious. She ran a mental check for intruders, not wanting the Fairy to spoil her bliss by surprising her first thing the next morning. Finding her skull gloriously empty, save for the comforting bonds with the Elementals, she finally drifted off to sleep.

It was almost disconcerting to wake naturally the next morning without either the lectures of the Fairy, an amused Rogue or a cheerful Paladin to greet her. A quick glance out the window confirmed that it was approaching mid-morning. Duran would almost definitely be up and about, but Hawk would probably still be sleeping, with his capacity to oversleep even longer than her at times. She could recall the instances in which the Rogue had awoken before her on her fingers.

After some lounging, another bath, and some proper grooming for once, the Princess was finally ready to face the day, and made her way down to breakfast - though technically it would have be more of a brunch. Halfway there, she thought better of it and stopped by Hawk's room first, not wanting to face Duran by herself. Sure enough, the thief was bundled under the sheets, head hidden away from the sun's rays.

She smiled slightly, just enjoying watching the Navarrian sleep peacefully for once, wishing she could see his face so that she could observe him more closely without being caught looking. Then she promptly slapped herself for being such a sap. Dear Goddess, even sweet and sensitive Victor would be laughing at her.

Mischief glinting in her eyes, she considered how best to wake him. Creeping up towards his bedside, she carefully drew back the blanket covering his head. The thief didn't stir, apparently dead to the world. Leaning in close, she breathed softly in his ear, "Hawk. Wake up Hawk."

"Unnnnnmph," came the eloquent reply. His eyelids tensed.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaawk," she tried again.

"Riesz?" he mumbled, turning over.

WHAT? How dare he mention that hussy's name in her presence? "MEGASPLASH!"

"ACK!" It wasn't even remotely close to the normal volume of her Megasplash - as opposed to a literal tidal wave of water, only several buckets worth descended onto the bed, but that was more than enough to thoroughly drench the desert rat.

A now thoroughly awake thief with sodden clothes and dripping hair pinned her with a glare. "Jeez Angie! What was that for?"

Duran had come running at the commotion and was now standing in the doorway. Seconds later, the Fairy wafted into the room with him. "Hawk, what's wrong? Oh, Angela! Is there a problem?"

"She's trying to kill me!"

"What? You filthy pervert! I was just trying to wake you up! But if you want to die, I'll be happy to help! HOLY BALL!"

"GAH!" The thief crossed his arms in front of his face as a dangerously powerful Holy Ball spell hurtled towards him. To the Princess's shock, however, after a moment, the spell seemed to turn... then started heading straight back towards her!

"AH!" She dived to the side, narrowly avoiding HER OWN SPELL! What WAS that?

The Paladin rushed to her side. "Are you okay Angela?"

"Hey, why isn't anyone worried about ME? She's the one who tried to kill me!" Hawk protested.

Hand shaking with righteous indignation, the Magus pointed accusingly at the drenched Navarrian. "That was Counter Magic! When by Shade did you get Counter Magic?"

"Isn't Counter Magic a Wanderer skill?" Duran puzzled, no doubt disturbed that his flawless knowledge of war and history, the place where most of his brainpower seemed to be invested, could possibly contain mistakes.

"He probably developed it out of sheer necessity, with Angela's spells after him all the time," the Fairy sniffed.

That certainly took a lot of fun out of her life. She didn't fancy the notion of her own spells coming back at her every time she took out her frustrations on the thief. "Hmph."

"Why were you picking on him anyway?" the tiny deity asked, flitting sporadically around her head. Angela waved her away, storming out of the room with a huff, mood considerably soured.

"I'm going out. I'll be back in half an hour for breakfast," she announced, flouncing out of the room before any of the other occupants had a chance to comment.

The Princess strode out of the inn crankily with no real destination in mind. In all honesty she just didn't want to get stuck alone with Duran at the moment, and losing her temper at Hawk had limited her options in avoiding the suddenly love-struck Forcenan. She settled for aimlessly wandering around the town, grumbling to herself and wondering why any guy would be attracted to that blonde-haired bimbo.

After she gauged a sufficient amount of time had passed for Hawk to dry himself off and get his sorry ass down to breakfast, she returned to the inn and was pleased to discover both of her companions already sitting down to eat. The Rogue even looked to be halfway through his already, though Duran seemed to have waited for her return before starting. She shook her head in exasperation. Normally she'd be happy to dismiss it as his courtly manners, but now, suspecting what she did...

At least the Fairy wasn't in their immediate vicinity. Well, technically the Fairy was ALWAYS in their immediate vicinity, but so long as the gnat was in somebody ELSE'S head, she didn't much care. In all honestly, the glorified insect had practically become a part of the furniture these days. Angela briefly wondered if a time would come when she'd find it unnatural to NOT have some mythical being trying to be a real live conscious floating around.

She sat down to eat with a brief nod of greeting. For several minutes the trio remained quiet, just enjoying eating their fill of quite possibly the tastiest meal they'd had in weeks - it wasn't just the soft beds and actual bathing facilities that made Forcena so much better than most places they visited. Even if the menu was more or less the same as every other inn they stayed at, the bread was still softer, the butter smoother and the fruit more fresh. Or perhaps it was just that light sensation that had settled over them with the knowledge that the threat of the God-Beasts had finally been conquered. For a while there, it had seemed as though time was against them and there was no way they were going to be able to dispose of all of the monstrosities before they either attacked a major city or became impossible to defeat.

Hawk finally broke the peaceful silence, having finished his breakfast in record time and now merely enjoying a leisurely drink of juice. "So... what now?"

What now, indeed.

"I'm not entirely sure," Duran admitted, sitting up a little straighter as he always did when the conversation turned to his all-important mission. "The Fairy is still pretty nervous about the prospect of a God-Beast of Darkness out there somewhere."

"But IF there's a God-Beast of Darkness out there, it's been out there for centuries! Shade said he lost the Mana Stone of Darkness ages ago. If it hasn't done anything for so long, is it really a threat now? And where would it even be? Does anyone even know where the Mana Stone of Darkness used to reside? We don't even have a starting point!" the Magus pointed out pragmatically between mouthfuls. Over time, she'd grown a little less careful with her table manners around her comrades - the way she figured it, both Hawk and Duran had already seen her looking and acting her absolute worse, so she wasn't doing anymore damage by letting a little thing like table manners slip here and there. Besides, manners took time and energy, and those were both things that seemed to be in eternally short supply of late.

The Paladin reluctantly agreed, "That IS true. And I think there are more important things we need to be doing."

"Such as?" Hawk asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Retrieving the Mana Sword from Koren."

Koren. The Wizard of the Red Lotus. The Scarlet Mage. The bastard had accumulated all sorts of names and even now caused her trouble. Even though she had been accepted back into Altena and he was no longer a direct threat to their country, the Princess couldn't deny that some part of her still sorely wanted revenge for the utter anguish he'd put her through. Not to mention there was the whole principle of the thing - she just couldn't let someone get away with messing with the Princess of Altena like that. What kind of reputation would that leave her? Even without the extra complication of the Mana Sword, Koren definitely had to go.

It seemed like an eternity since she had last seriously contemplated her foe. For the longest time, the only thing driving her had been rage and a steely determination to see the Scarlet Mage suffer for his transgressions, both perceived and real, against her. Fortunately, by the time those emotions dissipated and some logical reasoning had set in, she'd been a Delvar and able to hold her own in battle. Even as a Delvar, though, she had to admit that the idea of battling with Koren had scared her more than just a little bit. But she was a Magus now. The Princess was confident that even alone, she could take the little punk - they'd defeated God-Beasts, after all. God-Beasts! She'd make the Wizard of the Red Lotus eat his cape.

A decidedly wicked grin lit up the Altenan's face. "That is a good point. I think we've let Koren get away with it for much too long."

"While he's at large he remains a threat to the whole world. Who knows what he's planning to do with the Mana Sword? Besides, we still have to use it to somehow balance Mana, don't we? Just because the God-Beasts are dead, it doesn't mean that the original problems have all gone away," Duran added. "The Fairy is quite insistent that we get the Sword back eventually."

Hawk threw his hands into the air good-naturedly, rolling his eyes. "Our work is never done."

Angela could barely hide her relief at those words. The single major thing she'd been most concerned about was the notion that Hawk might run off and do who-knew-what the minute all of the God-Beasts had been taken care of. Now it at least looked like he was going to stick around until they'd dealt with Koren. She had time yet!

Shaking herself briefly in an effort to focus on the task at hand and ignore Duran's sky-blue gaze that had hardly shifted off her once during the entire conversation, the Princess stated, "Well, that's all well and good, but does anybody actually know WHERE the little ratbag has run off to?"

That effectively killed the discussion. An awkward silence settled over the trio.

"Maybe King Richard has some intelligence on the matter?" Hawk suggested finally.

"Good idea!" Duran exclaimed, and then added as an afterthought, "We should probably also inform him that the God-Beasts have been taken care of."

"Did he even know about them in the first place?" Angela muttered under her breath.

With at least something of a plan of action in place they packed what few possessions they had – most of which were protective trinkets, healing elixirs, herbs and weapons - and made their way to the castle, the Magus being sure to place the Rogue between herself and Duran. The Fairy still failed to make an appearance, possibly because the tiny gnat wasn't quite sure what to nag them about right at this point in time. The Princess made sure to relish the blessed silence while she could. Normally she would have been inclined to use this opportunity to try some more casual flirting with Hawk, but as things stood...

They strode into the Castle without a care in the world, several guards even saluting them as they walked past. Of course... it felt like so long ago that they'd almost forgotten how they'd saved Forcena from Altenan invasion. At least the political climate had finally settled down - she wasn't getting any nasty stares, but then, it was always possible that not many people recognised her as a Princess of Altena.

All the same, Angela tried not to shiver when they entered the throne room unannounced. She never did like visiting King Richard. He always stared at her in that creepy way, as though she were some great mystery or puzzle he was afraid of figuring out. It didn't help that Hawk and the Fairy always got these smug, knowing expressions on their faces when he did.

Perhaps more disturbing was the fact that even though they'd strode into the throne room completely unannounced, King Richard was already sitting there on his throne, flanked by the usual two Knights of Gold, who were both eyeing Duran's new armour with some curiosity.

"Duran! Princess Angela of Altena! Um... Hawk of... Navarre," the Royal Highness stuttered. At least it looked like they caught him at least slightly by surprise. What, did he spend his entire day just sitting on that throne, looking regal? "What a surprise to see you here."

The Mana Knight immediately lowered himself to one knee, bowing respectfully. Both Angela and Hawk remained standing, though the thief did give a cheery little wave. "Your highness King Richard. A great many things have happened since last we had the honour of holding your audience."

"So I can see. Ah, Duran," The King began hesitantly, "That armour... while I am grateful for everything you've done..."

"Bit presumptuous to think you've become a Knight of Gold," the Knight on the right muttered.

"Oh, this?" The Paladin blushed as though he was only realising the similarity of his armour to the classic attire of the Knights of Gold just now. "This is purely coincidental, I'm afraid, your majesty. In our battle against the God-Beast of the Moon my armour was badly damaged, and this was the best replacement available."

"It's more fitting for a Paladin anyway," Hawk commented critically.

"God-Beast?" King Richard asked in alarm.

"Paladin?" the other Knight of Gold exclaimed in shock.

"He did say that quite a lot has been happening," Angela reminded them.

Obviously trying to get a mental grasp on the situation, the King seemed to decide that it was best to start at the beginning. "Have you already managed to locate all of the Elementals and gain their blessings?"

The Magus scoffed. "That was weeks ago."

"We managed to open the gateway to the Mana Holyland and retrieve the Mana Sword, but Koren tricked us and took it from us," the Forcenan dutifully reported. In the background, Hawk muttered about the lack of tricking involved, but none of them really felt like explaining the entirety of their journey in detail. Duran would likely fill his liege in with every tiny event at a later stage, but for now, even the ever-eager Mana Knight was keen on telling him only enough to get the information they needed.

"Koren has the Mana Sword?" King Richard gripped the armrests of his throne. "And he's had it for weeks now? Why did you not pursue him immediately?"

"Ah, you see, that's where the whole God-Beast thing comes in," Hawk responded cheerfully. "We weren't the only ones who made it into the Holyland. Various parties broke the seals on all of the Stones, and the God-Beasts broke loose."

The ruler of Forcena had turned curiously pale. "The God-Beasts are free?"

"Oh, don't worry, we took care of them," Angela assured him. "That was why we weren't pursuing Koren, after all. You know, we thought saving the world was a little more important."

"Took care of God-Beasts? Three kids? Impossible!" One of the nameless Knights of Gold said, shaking his head in bewilderment.

"KIDS? I'm a full-fledged Magus, thank you very much, not to mention heir to Magical Kingdom of Altena!"

"A Magus!" King Richard was giving her that funny look again. "Even your mother, Queen Valda... dear Goddess, you've all grown so much."

"See, Fairy, even the King of Forcena uses the Goddess's name in vain!" Angela said, turning to Duran with one hand on her hip and the other pointing at aging ruler.

"I can't believe that the God-Beasts were loose and we were completely unawares!" The Knights of Gold were both looking a little weak at the knees.

"So... a Magus and a Paladin... and...," King Richard looked expectantly towards Hawk.

"A Rogue," he supplied, twirling one of his knives casually before tucking it away again.

The old man let out a sigh. "We've not seen warriors gain that sort of status for many, many years. How did the three of you accomplish these titles in mere months?"

"You HAVE heard of the second class change, haven't you?" Angela asked.

It was obviously too much for the Knights of Gold to take in - they'd settled for just standing there and looking stunned.

"I see. It appears that there is much that needs to be discussed." The ruler of Forcena studied them briefly. "But it appears that such things will have to come later. You have obviously come here in search of something." The old man was astute, at least.

"Yes, your highness. We were hoping that you might know something about the whereabouts of the Wizard of the Red Lotus. He is not present in Altena any longer," said Duran, head still bowed.

King Richard stroked his beard thoughtfully for a moment. His voice was gruff when resumed speaking. "We've been trying to locate Koren for some time, but he has proved quite slippery." The trio's faces fell. "Just yesterday, however, we received some troubling information that he may be working for the Dragon Emperor."

"The Dragon Emperor?" Duran stood up at that, seemingly forgetting his courtly etiquette. Angela racked her brain, trying to figure out why the title sounded so familiar.

"Hey, who IS this Dragon Emperor guy?" Hawk wondered.

The Paladin whirled, the fire in his eyes more intense than even when he spoke of the Scarlet Wizard and Dark Knight. "He was the man who killed my father."

Ah, another one of those moments in which the Magus found that all of her talents and skills were of absolutely no help to her. What was she supposed to SAY to something like that? Was there some sort of appropriate response out there that she'd somehow never found out about? 'Oh, I'm sorry' didn't really seem to cut it.

"Jeez, that's rough," Hawk commented after a moment when it became clear no one else would. "He's trouble, then. Worse than Koren?"

"Indeed," King Richard replied. "He's an enigmatic character - fifteen years ago, out of the blue he started stirring up trouble in many of the Kingdoms. There were rumours at one time that he had made a pact with the Underworld, and it had given him unnatural powers - there were even murmurings that he could control dragons. Hence the moniker of the Dragon Emperor. Two of Forcena's best Knights were dispatched to see if they could sort out the problem. One of them was Duran's father."

"And that was it?" the Rogue intoned dully. "They failed and you just left it at that?"

"Originally, that hadn't been the plan. But after those events, the Dragon Emperor almost seemed to vanish. We were relatively certain that he was still alive, somewhere, but he was no longer an active threat. From what intelligence we were able to gather, it looked as though he settled himself in at Dragon Hole and hasn't left since."

"The Dragons just let him?" asked the Magus dubiously.

"His powers WERE unnatural."

Duran remained where he stood, head hung with his orange hair obscuring his eyes. Angela could see him clenching his fists tighter and tighter. She restrained the urge to sigh. Their stoic Mana Knight had become awfully emotional lately - though that was little surprise, as the Fairy's presence would wear down anyone's poise after a while.

Still... she understood why he was upset at the mention of the Dragon Emperor. From a political point of view, it made sense that Forcena wasn't willing to sacrifice more Knights to chase after someone who didn't seem intent on being a threat anymore. But to Duran... his father remained unavenged. That had to sting at least a little. It was almost a wonder he hadn't run off to do it himself already. Unless, she mused, this was really what his quest for revenge against Koren was all about. Koren was a much more immediate foe, and hadn't the Paladin's original wish been for more power? Even back then, had the Dragon Emperor been at the back of his mind?

Previous to this crazy quest, she'd always been a bit of a cynic - fate was something that was meddlesome and to be ignored whenever possible. After all, there'd been no fate involved when the Fairy had chosen Duran - the glowing gnat had simply been too tired to keep going, and he was the most convenient person around. Now, however, she couldn't help but feel the slightest of chills run down her spine.

"So... he's still there?" Hawk asked.

"We believe so. It's difficult to get much in the way of information on him. If Koren truly is working for the Dragon Emperor, though, our situation has worsened considerably."

"We'll take care of it," Duran stated.

"...Excuse me?"

"We'll take care of it," the Paladin repeated. "We have to get the Mana Sword back anyway. While we're there, we'll deal with the Dragon Emperor."

Even King Richard didn't have anything to say to that. They all knew that the Paladin's motivation was probably more based on revenge than anything else, but pointing that out would mean nothing in the end. If the Dragon Emperor had the Mana Sword, the two objectives became almost one and the same.

Strange how she didn't even THINK about peaceful negotiations anymore.

"Very well," he relented. "It's will be perilous, though. Dragon Hole is a treacherous place for most humans; merely getting to it is inordinately difficult, even for those with talents such as your own. I would counsel you to make a visit to Pedan before you attempt the journey."

Duran seemed to think hard, always a trying task, before adopting a bewildered expression. "Where?"

The Fairy finally made her entrance - Angela was almost relieved; it had been unnatural for their tiny guardian to leave them in peace for so long. "The Lost City of Pedan. It's located in the Jungle of Illusion. King Richard is right - we should visit there."

"Why? What's so special about it?" Hawk was beginning to look curious.

"It's an ancient civilisation that has remained in isolation from the rest of the world for centuries. Their weaponry and armour is unmatched. Nowhere else could prepare you so adequately. Any sword or staff you buy there will not break," the glorified pixie informed them quite pompously.

"Then why didn't we go there when we had to fight the God-Beasts?" Angela demanded.

The tiny deity protested, "We couldn't afford the time it would take! It's quite tricky to actually enter Pedan! Not just anyone can do it! Sometimes travellers will find it on their first go, but there have been others that have spent months, sometimes even YEARS looking for it!"

"We don't HAVE years!"

"It won't take that long! The only cases where it has taken ANYONE that long has been when it's just been some greedy explorers. Anybody who really NEEDS to get into Pedan doesn't usually take more than a couple of days to find the entrance. And I would say our need is pretty great!"

"I can't believe I've never even heard of it before." Hawk had a wistful look on his face that the Princess just KNEW meant that he was thinking of all the great things he could probably steal there.

"But can we spend even a couple of days? We've already delayed our pursuit of Koren and the Mana Sword for quite some time because of the God-Beasts...," the Paladin mused.

"You won't regret it," King Richard assured him. "Regular weapons will not be sufficient against dragon hide, nor regular armour against dragon claws. And then there's the threat of Koren and the Dragon Emperor himself. Whatever their intentions are, it is imperative that they are not allowed to succeed. You'll be in an extremely hostile and isolated environment. You cannot risk something as rudimentary as your equipment failing you."

"Why don't you send an army there yourself if it's so damn dangerous?" Angela muttered.

"Angela!" the Fairy chastised.

"What? It's a valid point!"

King Richard shifted uncomfortably again. The Knights of Gold both exchanged a brief look, the meaning of which was difficult to determine. Finally, though it obviously pained him to do so, he admitted, "In all honesty, I don't believe any contingent I can spare at this point in time would be even equal to the power of a Paladin, Magus and Rogue. Sending you three is the surest bet we have against the Dragon Emperor."

"Hey, we're not your subjects to order around here! I'm Princess of Altena! And I don't think Hawk has taken a single order in his entire life! You can order Duran around all you like, but he's taking orders straight from the Goddess right now, and I have to say that she outranks you by a mile!"

"Yes, of course Princess Angela," he agreed. It creeped her out, but was that pride shining in the old coot's eyes? "I was merely anticipating your own wills. You are naturally free to do whatever you wish. But all the same, I do strongly suggest you take the time to visit Pedan."

"Yeah yeah," she groused, turning. Previously, she may have felt inclined to show a little more respect to the King of a nation as powerful as Forcena, Princess or not, but times had changed. Perhaps it was just King Richard himself. He seemed more like a slightly wise, kindly old uncle full of trivia and war stories than he did the ruler of arguably the most powerful nation in the world. Her mother - now THERE was an example of royalty. Not even her advisors dared to take a step out of line, much less a bunch of foreign dignitaries who had barged in without an appointment. Angela was still slightly amazed that Hawk had left Altena alive. "Well, unless you have any more helpful information, I think we should get going. We do have urgent business to attend to, after all. Especially if we're going to spend a couple of days looking for this weird old Lost City."

Both Duran and the Fairy were looking aghast at her gall, the Knights of Gold resembled a pair of stunned rabites, and Hawk was grinning like an idiot. King Richard, however, merely inclined his head, and bade them farewell. "Indeed you do. I understand that you are undertaking this quest at great personal cost, so as a small token of Forcena's gratitude, I shall provide a small financial offering that should help cover some of the costs of your trip to Pedan. One of my knights shall meet you with it at the town exit. I wish you a safe journey and the very best of luck."

Nodding curtly, the Princess summoned all of her regal air and strode out of the throne room. The effect was partially ruined by her companions; Hawk ambling after her with his arms behind his head, and the Paladin left scrambling to catch up after executing a hasty bow and several profuse offerings of gratitude towards his sponsor.

The Fairy flitted after her, pinning her with a glare. "That was so rude, Angela! You could have at least said thanks!"

"Thanks? Why should we thank him for doing his dirty work for him? Why must WE always thank everyone else? We killed all of the God-Beasts! I think we're entitled to a few benefits here and there!"

"The lady has a point," Hawk agreed.

"You shouldn't have to be paid to save the world!" the tiny deity protested. "You should do it out of your own sense of what is right!"

"We didn't DEMAND payment. He offered it to us! And it was his suggestion we go to Pedan in the first place! It only makes SENSE that he gives us some compensation for taking care of a fifteen-year-old problem anyway! Why, if he had acted sooner, we might never have even been in this mess!" Angela ranted, waving her Clennunus Cane about for emphasis. Okay, she was exaggerating - none of them exactly knew what this Dragon Emperor's role in this whole mess was, but with a title like that, it had to be a big one.

"I can't believe ANY of the Elementals thought you were worthy," the Fairy muttered.

Angela bit back the retort on the tip of her tongue - she might not have had a whole lot of respect for the Fairy, but the Elementals had treated all of them well, despite their eclectic personalities.

With the conversation effectively brought to a standstill, the trio and a half continued out of the castle, slowing their stride to a leisurely dawdle as they entered the castle town. The Fairy quickly returned to the confines of Duran's head, after being waved away by both Angela and Hawk - regular townspeople, they'd noticed on the few occasions the Fairy had let herself be seen, had a tendency to be unsettled or outright freaked out by the sight of glowing gnat. Having become rather used to unusual sights, they couldn't quite understand why - perhaps Fairies were actually bad omens to commonfolk.

Stopping to think about that, Angela was inclined to believe that the commonfolk had it right.

They took a brief detour past Duran's house for no particular reason - the Knight was still abiding by his decision not to return home until he had completed his quest, but obviously was homesick enough to at least want to see the exterior. Angela and Hawk came along quietly, mostly due to the fact that they weren't quite ready to let go of their feeling of celebration just yet. It seemed a shame that their celebration for defeating the God-Beasts had wound up being so short - nothing more than a stay in a proper inn and a nice sleep-in. At the same time, this sort of urgency had become routine in their lifestyle; they'd grown used to the momentum of this crazy quest, and it was starting to seem impossible to stop.

When they reached the gates leading onto the Molebear Highlands they were met by a plain-looking forty-something Knight that Duran seemed to know. The pair greeted each other with a hearty slap on the back, spending several minutes conversing about recent happenings. The Magus and Rogue again hung to the back, neither of them intent on being drawn into the conversation - at least, not until the Paladin's apparent comrade held out a bag.

The bag looked to be quite heavy.

"Anyhow, the King sent me over with this," he concluded as the pair hurried over to join them. "I don't know what exactly it's for, but with things the way they are in this country at the moment, I'm not so sure I want to." The elder knight gave a hearty laugh as he handed it over. "Anyhow, I'd better be getting back to my duties, and you yours. Best o'luck, young Duran. You'll have to tell me all about your adventures when you get back."

"Of course," the orange-haired youth assured him. "I only wish we had more time to talk now. I'll buy you a drink when I return."

"I'll hold you to that! And maybe you can tell me about your other conquests, too," he said with a grin, winking suggestively at Angela.

The Princess glared, restraining the urge to nail the uppity Forcenan with a good Holy Ball - the poor fool obviously had no idea of who exactly he was referring to right now. Duran, to his credit, blushed and hurriedly mumbled some farewells. Hawk, in a rare act of self-preservation, wisely remained quiet.

Once the Knight departed, the trio hurriedly turned their attention to bag, opening it to see how much exactly King Richard had gifted them with. Even the Paladin looked eager - their travels seemed to always be leaving them consistently destitute, despite Hawk's consistent efforts to amass a small fortune from the pockets of strangers. All the same, a stunned silence settled over the travellers once the bag had been opened.

"Oh my," the Princess stated.

"That's quite a lot," Duran observed.

Hawk looked like his birthday had come early. "Three hundred thousand Luc," he reported confidently.

The Magus and Paladin stared at him. Finally, Angela caved. "How do you know that just by looking at it?"

"Call it a talent."

"I never expected that he would give us THIS much," she said in disbelief. Even from a royal treasury as large as Forcena's, it was an opulent sum. When they'd seen the heavy bag, she'd assumed that it hadn't contained ONLY money. And if it did, she expected it must have been in small change.

"Well, I suppose that quality armour and weapons don't come cheap," Duran observed dubiously.

"Maybe not, but this is on a whole other scale."

"You could probably buy half of the Black Market with this." Hawk almost looked as though he was restraining the urge to jump up and down on the spot with glee.

Taking charge, the Princess drew the string on the bag shut and tied it securely. "Let's not question it. With all the bad luck coming our way recently, it's about time something GOOD actually happened." She paused, waiting for a rebuttal from the Fairy, and was strangely disappointed when one didn't come. "Let's head to this Lost City place. If it's really going to take so long to find it, then we may as well get started." It was more that she wanted to keep busy so that she didn't have to engage in any sort of idle conversation with Duran, but he didn't know that.

"Right. Let's head out a little further before we call Flammie," Duran suggested, eyeing some of the nearby townsfolk who were looking curiously in the direction of their huddle.

Angela was left holding the bag of money. Sighing, the Princess proferred the bag to Hawk. He pouted. "That's no fun."

"You'll just steal it anyway," she reasoned.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in having it if you GIVE it to me?" he complained.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine." She briefly contemplated stuffing the money down the front of her red dress before deciding that it would be much too uncomfortable. In the end, she settled for fastening it around her waist.

He grinned at her; an almost blinding flash of white against tanned skin. "You're such a great sport Angie."

Still not having completely forgiven the thief for his unknowing transgression earlier that day, she just muttered, "It's getting too troublesome to argue with you."

They called Flammie, Angela being careful to make sure that Hawk was between her and Duran when they boarded the white dragon, which had the extra bonus of giving her a legitimate excuse to cling to the Rogue. Several powerful flaps of the white dragon's wings later, the comforting safety and familiarity of Forcena was quickly left behind them.

It took quite a lot longer than usual for them to arrive at the isle that was home to the Jungle of Illusion; it was that far away from Forcena. Even when they arrived after some half hour of high-speed dragon travel there wasn't much to see. There was very little in the way beaches on the isolated landmass, with most of the coastline composed of steep cliffs which dropped off into angry waves. The foliage passing beneath them as Flammie circled, searching for a large enough clearing to drop them off in, was thick and unnervingly uniform. It unsettled her senses, but it certainly didn't look at all impressive. A legendary Lost City in a place like this?

Flammie finally seemed to locate a clearing large enough to drop them off in. After they disembarked, the white dragon wasted no time in returning to the skies. It felt strangely claustrophobic after she left.

From the ground, the Jungle of Illusion didn't seem any more special. The tropical foliage was exotic, to be sure, but it was hard to be impressed by it after witnessing the natural splendours of the Forest of Wonder and the Mana Holyland. It was uncomfortably humid, but that was to be expected. The only truly unsettling thing was that barely perceptible sensation of magic that ghosted across her skin. It was either very weak, or very well hidden. Even so, the Jungle of Illusion seemed like a relatively safe and peaceful place.

"Friend Duran! Pervert Man! Slutty Girl! You come to help Carlie?"

Then again, maybe not.

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Mwa ha ha hahahaha! Please review. 


	50. Never Take Advice From a Fairy

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. The plot actually makes progress. Please remain seated, lto better absorb the shock.

Author's note: Well now, it seems that review responses are no longer allowed! I'll still make an effort to use this newfangled messaging system to respond to as many as I can, but I'm afraid that for those of you out there who leave reviews anonymously … well, if you want a response, leave your E-Mail address and I'll do my best to reply. Aww, I actually rather liked doing response to reviewers in here, especially as a lot of reviewers frequently had the same questions or brought up topics that I wanted everyone to know about, but rules are rules I suppose. Anyhow, the usual thanks goes to those who did review the last chapter, and I hope everyone enjoys this one.

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**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 50 – Never Take Advice From a Fairy

By Sinnatious

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"CARLIE! What are YOU doing here?" Angela half-shrieked. Her nerves couldn't take this sort of punishment anymore! Why did fate keep throwing her cruel surprises?

"What is SLUTTY GIRL doing here?" the pink-clad imp demanded right back.

"We're on a quest," Duran interjected soothingly. "We were just surprised to see you in such a remote location, is all. The Isle of Illusion is rather... removed... from the rest of civilisation. How did you get here?"

"Carlie go boom-boom again! Big round funny man send Carlie here!" she explained happily. Boom-boom? It appeared that Bon Voyage had at least one regular customer. Three, if you counted the merchant cats - the Magus suspected that it was the only form of transportation that could possibly be faster than Flammie. "Carlie gonna find Heath, no matter what!"

The trio exchanged an awkward glance at that statement, Hawk taking a few inconspicuous steps away from the half-elf. "Er... it's nice to see such determination," the Paladin commented plaintively. None of them really had much to say beyond that, and so shifted uncomfortably while Carlie prattled on in the background about how wonderful Heath was, how perilous her journey had been to find him and everything she was going to tell the glorious Heath when she finally found her wayward guardian.

Angela had actually given the whole situation with the small she-devil and Heath quite a bit of thought over the past few weeks, usually when she was ardently trying to avoid thinking about much more awkward or uncomfortable personal topics. And as time wore on, she became more and more convinced that the Priest of Light had met his demise. She was inclined to believe that he had become caught up with Deathjester - if he'd fallen in with Koren's crowd, they would have almost certainly come across him by now, and if he had survived the great big mess that Navarre had fallen into, Nikita would have found something out and surely relayed that information; the Priest of Light was a well-known and reasonably important figure, after all. There was also the fact that they never had discovered the intention of the Beastmen's attempted attack on Wendel, so she felt that it was a reasonable assumption. However, Koren had killed Deathjester, and if this legendary Heath hadn't reappeared yet, then she had the sinking feeling that he never would.

The one thing she was absolutely sure of, though, was that she didn't want to be the person - or even anywhere NEAR the person - who told Carlie that.

"And so Carlie's been wandering around, looking and looking and looking! Then Friend Duran arrived! Friend Duran has to meet Heath! Heath would like Friend Duran!"

"That sounds lovely, Carlie," the Paladin agreed, though the expression on his face belied his pity. Even the ever-optimistic Mana Knight apparently doubted the chances of the Priest of Light's survival these days. "I'm quite sure I'd like him myself. But... do you really think he's in the Jungle of Illusion?"

"Of course! Carlie would not come unless Carlie was sure!" the blonde-haired blue-eyed tyke shouted, stamping her foot in a precursor to a temper tantrum. Angela flinched, keeping an eye on the brat's ever-handy ball and chain. Since the second class change, her strength and reflexes had improved to the point where she doubted it was a real threat, but she'd had a few too many near-death experiences with the thing to not possess some healthy fear of it.

Fortunately, the potential crisis was averted as the Fairy shimmered into sight just above Duran's head. "The Jungle of Illusion is said to hide more than just the Lost City of Pedan," the tiny deity explained without preamble. "There are rumours of a Palace of Illusion as well, and there could quite possibly be any number of hidden locales that aren't known about. It's a very mysterious isle."

"Huh, who would have thought?" Angela mused, glancing at the scenery around them with a new interest.

"Shiny," Carlie murmured, temporarily mesmerized by the glowing gnat.

Hawk seemed mildly impressed. "The perfect place for someone to hide, if you know how. Even more effective than the Forest of Wonder. There's probably all sorts of magical folk hiding out here."

"Still... Carlie, how do you expect to find Heath in this entire Jungle? It would be pretty difficult by yourself even if it was just an ordinary jungle," Duran asked worriedly. The man had to be a saint if he was still concerned about the volatile girl. Angela was quite content with the notion of the High Priest's adopted granddaughter wandering the isle for the rest of her life.

Those impossibly clear blue eyes grew hard. Again, the trio tensed, expecting a tantrum. It seemed sometimes that just about anything could set the child off. They were surprised, then, when the halfling turned her back on them and started stomping away. "Not true! Carlie will find Heath! Carlie will do it all by herself! Carlie will show Slutty Girl and Pervert Man!"

"Hey, we didn't say anything!" Hawk protested half-heartedly.

Had they just heard right? Had the Goddess showed them mercy? Was Carlie actually WILLINGLY going to go her separate way? She'd been about ready to ask the Navarrian to dose the brat with some more of his handy sleep pollen, or better yet, change the little monster into a lullabud. But there was the little fifteen-year old High Priest's granddaughter, dressed in painfully cute pink overalls and cap, lugging a weapon half her own size away from them.

She turned back to them briefly, crossing her short arms over her chest in a huff. "CARLIE WILL SHOW YOU! CARLIE WILL BE JUST FINE! HEATH IS WAITING! HEATH'LL KNOW THAT CARLIE FOUND HIM ALL BY HERSELF!" She whirled again, storming deeper into the recesses of the jungle. After a couple of seconds, the thick foliage had completely concealed her from their sight.

The three warriors and their pint-sized guardian stood in the clearing for a long moment, unnerved by the sudden silence, before unanimously turning and walking in the opposite direction. That was that, then. Carlie had her mission, and they had theirs.

Still, it had been a somewhat surreal exchange with the child that had been haunting them on and off since the Cave of Waterfalls. As they walked away, Angela couldn't quite shake the feeling that she'd just danced through a sleeping pack of hungry wolves. Naked. Carrying fresh rabite meat.

The Fairy looked in the direction their other perpetual nuisance had just stormed off in. "She's grown," the tiny deity commented appreciatively.

"Grown more scary, you mean," Angela mumbled.

"I thought she behaved herself quite well," Duran offered.

"Doesn't matter. She doesn't HAVE to do anything anymore. The mere sight of her terrifies me."

"Let's walk faster," Hawk suggested, "Just in case she gets any ideas."

The Princess picked her pace. "Yes, let's."

Still, the Magus couldn't resist one last glance over her shoulder. It really was sort of sad... and by elf terms, Carlie was awfully young...

Angela swiftly slapped herself. Her companions paused, turning to look at her quizzically.

"Don't mind me. This forest is doing strange things to my senses. For a minute there, I thought I might be losing my mind," she offered mildly, striding ahead of them. The Rogue and Paladin shared a glance, shrugged, and then ambled after her, the Fairy tracing a lazy path through the air behind them.

They walked for about an hour in no particular direction through the jungle. Considering that most of the fauna had that same eerie sort of repeating pattern that swiftly had them lost in the Lampflower Forest, there was little point in picking any particular path or direction, so they were just letting instinct guide them. Not even instinct, really - they had just become so used to travelling here and there that their legs pretty much took over and somehow, even when they weren't particularly paying attention, they made it to their destination. It was a little surprising that the Fairy hadn't called them on it, but then, the irritating little gnat had been out of sorts lately, as though something was troubling her. It was swiftly dismissed as unimportant, though, as it obviously wasn't dire enough for their tiny guardian to seek refuge in anyone's skull.

The monotony was broken somewhat abruptly when the jungle gave way to a shallow stream and a large clearing – one that they hadn't seen from the air. Perplexed, Angela reached out with her magical senses, feeling for something that didn't seem to be there. She glanced sidelong at Hawk, who nodded his agreement, amber eyes flicking rapidly over the surrounding environment.

"It's weird," he agreed. "There's less Mana than there ought to be."

"What are you talking about?' the Fairy asked, confused, zooming over to the pair.

The Princess ignored her, eyeing what appeared to be a small island resting in the middle of the shallow stream. Sighing at her shoes, just KNOWING how hard the mud was going to be to clean off, she stepped into the water and walked towards it determinedly, Hawk and Duran quick to follow.

It was difficult to describe the sensation that passed over her as she stepped onto the island. It felt sort of similar to when they crossed the threshold of the Gate of the Mana Holyland. Only this was even more disorientating because they were on the ground.

Having grown used to strange sights and unusual happenings, Angela found herself oddly calm at the fact that one second ago she'd been ankle deep in mud, and the next she was standing in a threadbare, unfamiliar inn that seemed to be missing a lot of the facilities inns normally had. The most notable of which was an innkeeper.

The Navarrian appeared at her side a moment later, looking about appreciatively. Duran appeared another couple of seconds after him, a shocked expression on his face and his hand firmly grasping the hilt of his sword. The Fairy hovered above the Mana Knight's head, her mouth hanging open in an undignified manner.

Twirling with a flourish, flimsy red skirt flaring behind her, the Princess gestured grandly with her cane. "Well then. Welcome to Pedan!"

"I... you... how...," the tiny deity spluttered, actually forgetting to flap her translucent wings for several moments and losing altitude for it.

"How do you know it's Pedan?" Duran asked curiously. "The Fairy did say that there were lots of other places hidden in the Jungle of Illusion."

"The magic changed. It's not hidden anymore. Even you ought to be able to sense it, Duran," Hawk answered for her. "And there's also that sign on the wall over there with the big 'Welcome to Pedan!' on it."

"Let's check to make sure, shall we?" Angela suggested, striding over to the only door the inn sported and throwing it open. Sure enough, beyond the doorway lay an array of old-fashioned stone and clay buildings of an unfamiliar design of architecture, all interconnected by a raised cobble stone pathway. Folk that were presumably natives wandered about on their business, dressed in fine flowing robes of rich colours and unusual cut. Even if they didn't have the handy sign in the inn, it would have still felt like an ancient lost city. It wasn't the sort of look one could really reproduce too easily.

"I don't believe it! It's impossible!" the Fairy blathered, wringing her tiny hands in either anxiety or hysteria - it was hard to tell which.

"Why are you so surprised?" Hawk asked. "You did say that some people found it on their first go, didn't you?"

"Yes, but, well...," the Fairy stammered. "That may or may not have been completely true."

"What?"

"I just said it to get you to agree! I've never actually heard of anyone finding it on their first day, much less almost instantly!" she squeaked.

There was a brief pause. Then Angela exploded. "YOU FILTHY ROTTEN LYING INSECT! YOU TRICKED US!" She raised her Clennunus Cane high, fully prepared to swat the little nuisance once and for all.

"Eeeek!" the Fairy zigzagged through the air, momentarily disorientated by panic. Fortunately for her, her tiny size and erratic path saved her from the Princess's first two swipes.

"Does it really matter?" Duran asked placatingly, looking a little anxious for his holy parasite. "I mean, we found it, didn't we? She was just preparing us for the possibility of it taking a long time."

"It's the principle of the thing!"

"Since when did YOU care about principles?" the tiny deity wailed.

"You're not helping your situation any, you know," Hawk drawled in the background.

Fortunately for the endangered pixie, the Magus became suddenly distracted by a pair of approaching Knights. The Fairy used the brief lull to disappear into the safety of Duran's head. The Paladin in question had frozen in position, blue eyes wide. Hawk remained slouched nearby, but Angela knew his amber eyes were fixed unwaveringly on the approaching strangers.

Both were dressed in the traditional armour of the Knights of Gold, though one of them sported a regal cape that wasn't part of the usual dress code. At a second glance, they seemed quite familiar, though it was hard to pinpoint exactly why. Both men were in their thirties, but Angela had to admit they were still rather handsome. The one with the cape reminded her a little of King Richard, and the other bore a striking resemblance to Duran...

Angela's stomach suddenly felt cold. The trio remained silent as the pair of familiar strangers walked past.

"But your highness!"

"Loki," the other reprimanded. "I'm not King yet. Besides, what did I tell you about referring to me as such?"

"It's habit," the other grumbled. "But it doesn't change the fact that it was a complete rip-off!"

"That is something I can agree with. But I'm sure we won't regret it later. Besides, you left your sword behind for your son. We had to get one here regardless."

"If I had known how expensive they were going to be, I might have reconsidered," he murmured.

They continued past the stunned trio, bantering back and forth with the easiness of old comrades. Angela found it strangely hard to breathe as Loki paused, looking back towards them briefly. Duran hadn't shifted even slightly. The Golden Knight shook his head as though to clear it, then continued on after his companion.

They remained there for several minutes long after the pair of knights had departed. The silence was almost deafening. Finally, Angela hissed, "Fairy... what just happened?"

The tiny deity shimmered into sight after a moment. She seemed quite subdued. "Lost City Pedan... I never expected..."

"Father...," Duran whispered. Hawk patted his comrade on the shoulder comfortingly.

"I'm sorry, Duran. I never for a moment imagined... if I had known... Time doesn't pass naturally here," the Fairy explained. She looked incredibly uneasy, but there was obviously no tangible danger if the little coward was willing to stay in the open. "Lost City Pedan... it's an irregularity in Mana. When people cross through the illusion into the city itself, there's no telling when exactly they will appear within the city itself. Leaving it, they of course return to the time they left...," she trailed off, seeing the lost and forlorn expression on her host's face. "It's complicated Mana theory. But the result is that many of the travellers here may be from either the distant past or the distant future. It was merely an... unfortunate coincidence that we encountered Duran's father."

"I could have stopped him! I could have saved his life!" the Paladin suddenly whirled, making as though to run after them.

"It's too late, Duran," Angela told him quietly. "They're gone. And even if you did catch up with them, I don't think you'd really be able to change anything."

The Forcenan's shoulders slumped in defeat. After a moment, he gathered himself, standing straight and tall again. "You're right, Angela. Sorry. I just..."

"Hey, don't apologise. Anyone would react the same way. Just because you're the Mana Knight doesn't mean you're not allowed to have feelings," she berated him, rolling her eyes in exasperation. It was about as sympathetic as she was ever going to get.

"Thanks Angela," he said, forcing a small smile. "But really... It was a long time ago. I shouldn't let it bother me so much. What's done is done."

The Magus exchanged a skeptical glance with the Rogue, who merely shrugged. Neither of them really believed that Duran was entirely okay after the recent emotional rollercoaster he'd been on, but who were they to argue? The Princess gave him an awkward pat on the shoulder, and started leading the way along the stone paths. Probably best just to keep the Paladin busy so that he couldn't dwell too deeply on it.

That was relatively easy to accomplish, as there were certainly plenty of armour and weapon vendors present, with merchants constantly trying to grab their attention with a large array of admittedly impressive looking wares. They took their time browsing each of the stores, none of them wanting to make a mistake with a purchase that could later very well mean the difference between life and death. There was also the added bonus that nothing cheered Duran up quite as quickly as looking at exotic armour and weapons. Even so, despite their impressiveness, Angela had yet to actually see much in the way of either armour or weapon that drastically surpassed what they were currently equipped with. A lot of the wares they viewed were admittedly high quality, of the sort that even most royalty would be pleased with, but not quite as confidence-inducing or as remarkable as you wanted your tools for saving the world with to be.

There was also the matter of expense. The prices in Pedan were outrageous in a way she'd not yet seen. Outfitting even one of them with the best of the armour and weapons they'd seen thus far would make a sizeable dent in the coffers of any royal treasury. Again, they were top quality goods - but they weren't worth THAT much. Hawk was in the background, alternating between drooling at the various wares and complaining about how much of a rip-off most of it was.

It made sense, in a way. A place as well hidden as this wasn't likely to receive many customers, even if they were from all sorts of different times. Still, surely if they dropped a line about how they needed this stuff to, oh, you know, SAVE THE WORLD, then maybe at the very least they could get a discount? After all, it was a sound investment for any merchants to ensure that there were still future customers to sell their wares to.

Wearily, they entered what felt like the fiftieth store. At first glance it wasn't terribly different from the others they'd come across - poorly lit, musty, and cramped. But after only a few seconds, Angela could sense something was different. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what, but she immediately felt her eyes drawn to the wall behind the counter.

"Ah," said a curious-looking shopkeeper, dressed in a turban and what vaguely resembled ancient Navarrian desert clothing, "I've been expecting you. Come, buy, buy!" He twirled, gesturing madly at the collection of weapons and armour that he seemed to be in the process of setting up against the far wall.

Long-used to the often odd habits of merchants, they ignored his frantic whirling and twirling, instead focusing on the wares spread out before them. Angela's gaze immediately landed on a mysterious black rod hanging on the wall - it was carved into the long, slimline body of a dragon, and the magic positively poured off of it. The Clenunnus Cane, which when she'd first laid hands on it felt almost like a branch of the Mana tree itself, was dwarfed in comparison.

The shopkeeper was quick to pick up on her interest. "The Dragon's Rod," he announced. "So named because even dragons fear it." Oddly appropriate, she mused, considering that they WERE going to be seeing quite a lot of the glorified fire-breathing lizards sometime soon. The name wouldn't matter, though. She simply knew that she needed this weapon. Maybe it was just the Elementals or even the Goddess herself putting thoughts into her head, but why would she even want to argue?

"If you're looking at that, then I guess you'll probably be needing these as well," the merchant murmured, almost carelessly plucking several more items from his stock and plunking them down on the countertop.

She carefully inspected the artefacts. All seemed to be older than time itself - there was a tiara of ornate design made of an unfamiliar metal that also had magic radiating in strong waves from it. She was further shocked when upon touching it her magic spiked suddenly.

"The tiara will naturally boost your magic levels and efficiency," he explained, without the usual hyperbole she was used to from most salesmen. "And this little beauty," he continued, holding up a long black robe with an unusual silver pattern printed on to the fabric, "Will likewise shield against any energy-based magic thrown its way." That was nothing short of amazing. This vendor left the others in the dust.

"And this?" she asked, picking up a abstractly-shaped hairpin giving off a strange aura.

"The Magma Hairpin," he reported. "It will convert any fire-based spells sent your way into magic for your own use."

"Cool," Hawk said. Angela glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and did a brief double take. Was he wearing a wolf pelt?

Deciding to question him on it once safely outside of the store, she turned her attention to Duran, who had already picked out an impressive-looking sword and set of armour. She was surprised to see him choosing a golden crown - though headband was probably a closer description - over his traditional helmet. He'd also chosen a platinum-coloured armour with gold trimmings and a matching, mirror-like shield. She assumed that it would probably useful in shielding against weaker magic spells, and thus would hold back a small dragon's fire breath as well.

"Ah, good choices, sir! Brave Blade, Hero's Crown, Hero's Armour and the Sacred Shield... might I recommend this extra accessory for your armour? This was the crest of an ancient War King, enchanted to give him endless stamina so that he never tired..."

The Paladin appeared to think it over for a second before nodding his assent. "You getting anything Hawk?"

"I'm fine!" the Rogue cheerfully replied, still dressed in his silvery wolf pelt.

Fortunately, their shopkeeper wasn't quite as omniscient as he first appeared. He twirled for a moment, obviously doing some math in his head, before announcing, "That'll be three hundred and fifty-two thousand Luc thanks!"

Duran was gaping, and Angela was pretty sure that she was too. That was a ridiculous sum of money! And that was even with Hawk stealing all of his equipment! She turned to the thief in question, who was holding out the hefty bag of money to her. "Fifty-two thousand short." Apparently the thief had already sized up their opponent and established that haggling wasn't going to be of any use.

Brow creasing, she turned back to the strange dancing shopkeeper. "Is there anything we can trade to make up the difference?"

He tapped his chin for a moment, before gesturing towards her Clenunnus Cane and Duran's golden armour. "That's a fine armour and shield you're sporting lad - some of the less needy that pass through here will find it more than adequate for their needs. And I could sell that cane of yours quite easily, Miss. That should just about cover it."

Her Clenunnus Cane? But this cane... it was the only thing she had that could keep that damn Fairy in line! She'd grown rather attached to this weapon, and while she knew that it would be just extra weight, she was reluctant to part with it. Besides, given the regularity of her weapons shattering or splintering into many tiny pieces, she wouldn't have minded keeping a backup handy.

In the end, it couldn't be helped. Duran divested himself of his current armour and shield, which worked out well because they would've had to abandon it anyway. With a sigh, she handed over the bag of money and cane also, fondly informing the merchant, "It's a great Fairy Swatter."

The exchange was made and they quickly outfitted themselves inside the shop, Angela sweeping the ancient black robe over her shoulders and fastening the Magma hairpin in her hair before securing the tiara atop her head. As she picked up the Dragon Rod, she had to admit that the exorbitant price already felt worth it. She really did feel like a Magus in this garb. And Duran was looking even more like the perfect picture of the Mana Knight than before.

They waited until they were outside and a safe distance away from the shop before wheeling on their companion. "Hawk," Angela began, "...What ARE you wearing?"

The Rogue seemed to be wearing a grey wolf pelt, with the head of the wolf forming a hood that he'd carelessly left thrown back. It wasn't that it looked bad on him - quite the opposite, it made him look a little rugged and dashing - but it didn't look like it could possibly protect him from anything other than the cold.

"A Silverwolf pelt," he responded proudly. "It's lightweight and doesn't tear easily - you can puncture it with something sharp, but it'll hold against the slash of dragon claws. Bit of protection against weak magic spells, too. Oooo, and I got these," he announced, producing a new pair of daggers from somewhere. They were curved backwards, two-edged and were made of the same sort of unfamiliar metal that Duran's Brave Blade was crafted from. The two daggers certainly looked lethal. "Oh, and this card. I don't know why, but it kind of felt lucky, so I just picked it up," he added, holding up an old, ratty playing card.

Angela rolled her eyes bemusedly. Well, at least the trio looked the part now. Actually, Duran had pretty much always looked the part, but the Princess had to admit that while her normal attire might have looked good, it wasn't the garb of anyone particularly threatening. And Hawk had never once actually looked like anything more than a slightly suave street thief - it had taken her quite some time when they'd first met to acclimatise to the knowledge that he actually had quite decent fighting skills.

Now fully outfitted, they felt a lot more confident, and yet still a little at lost of what to do next. They headed back towards the inn at a leisurely pace, taking in the sights of the magnificent Lost City. It was the sort of thing you only got to see once in a lifetime, after all. The trio unanimously decided in an unspoken agreement to spend the night at the inn there before heading off to the Glass Desert - once inside Dragon's Hole, they couldn't be sure of when they'd next get to rest, so they wanted to be ready. Besides, despite all of the amazing places they'd been in recent months, they'd never really had the opportunity to play tourist at any of them. And there was plenty to see in the ancient civilization, especially with bewildered travellers from all sorts of time periods passing through. As they wandered the cobbled stone streets, purses considerably lighter, Angela could've sworn she'd seen an irritated looking Rune Master toting a very familiar cane, followed by a glowing light that moved rather erratically through the air.

Eventually, they headed back towards the inn, which they were delighted to discover in their absence had improved its bedding and acquired a proper bathroom. This magic really was something. Long used to skipping out on the bill at inns, the thought of payment never once even crossed their minds, though who they were supposed to give the money to without the presence of an innkeeper was anyone's guess. Besides, with the highway-robbing prices in the rest of Pedan, they could easily afford to put up travellers for free.

Hawk had apparently picked some pockets in their tour, so they bought some food from one of the vendors that hadn't yet. They returned to the inn and enjoyed a quiet, leisurely dinner. Afterwards, Angela found herself walking around the inn somewhat aimlessly, feeling as though for once it was still a little too early to have her bath and go to sleep.

The Navarrian had disappeared into the bathroom at some point, and Angela hadn't seen him come out yet. Mildly irritated, the Princess asked, "What's Hawk DOING in there?"

Duran blinked. "Oh, you didn't notice? He left to go for a walk a little while ago. Said something about... what was it... a while since he'd last 'prowled under the moonlight' or something."

"Oh." That did sound like Hawk. How dare he just run off like that? The darn Rogue grew harder to keep track of almost every day. Sometimes she wondered if he could turn himself invisible at will. After all, who knew what kind of crazy magic Luna and Dryad had bestowed upon him?

"Um, Angela," the Paladin stammered, suddenly fidgety. "I was wondering if, well, I might take this opportunity to speak with you for a moment."

The Magus felt her stomach drop somewhere towards her feet. "What is it, Duran?" Here it came. She was ninety-nine percent sure this was going to be terribly awkward. Damn the desert rat for running off and leaving her alone with the Forcenan like this!

"It's just... seeing my father and Prince Richard today... we can't ever really know for sure what will happen," the Mana Knight admitted. Angela was slightly disturbed by her companion's unusual display of doubt, but then, the stakes had risen now. Koren they knew they could take on and live to tell the tale, but this Dragon Emperor character was a complete enigma. "And with that in mind... I don't want to have any regrets."

"Yes?" the Altenan prodded.

"I... well, you're really very pretty, Angela." Duran was blushing now. The Princess spared a moment to be amazed at the thought that only a couple of months ago the sight of this would have melted her into a puddle of goo. "And we've been travelling together on this quest for a long time now... you're really powerful, and there's a lot that I admire about you... and that is... well... I just wanted to say that I really like you."

She had known it was coming, but the Magus felt even worse that it had to come TODAY, after everything the Paladin had already been through. She had to admit that if she didn't know for a fact that she no longer held any feelings other than comradely friendship for the Forcenan, it would have been a tempting offer, but the Princess considered herself a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and despite whatever the Fairy might have had to say about her fickleness, she'd made her decision weeks ago. There really wasn't any easy way of letting the guy down, so after searching her mind for some appropriate words for a minute, she settled for being blunt and honest.

"Nothing personal Duran... you're a great guy and all... but let's keep it strictly friends, okay? I don't have those sorts of feelings for you."

She expected the Paladin to look crestfallen, not shocked and confused like he was now. The Fairy appeared above his head suddenly, glaring at her. The Magus glared right back. What right did the glowing gnat have to pass judgement on this kind of personal matter? Just because the tiny deity had to put up with the Forcenan's emotions...

Like a lamp that had ignited after a painfully long delay, Angela felt herself being hit with the slightly dizzying sensation of belated realisation of the obvious."You knew!" she exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the small guardian.

"What?" Duran asked, startled.

"Not you, the damn Fairy! She's been spouting your many virtues at me for weeks! Trying to convince me to go out with you, no doubt!"

"That's sort of strange," the Paladin stated, brow creased with thought. "She's been telling ME for the past couple of weeks that she was SURE you would reciprocate my feelings. This is why this is all kind of a shock to me... I mean, I thought I might have just IMAGINED that kiss in the Labyrinth of Ice, but the Fairy-"

"You cruel, manipulative, devious little hussy!" Angela raged, interrupting the knight. "You knew my feelings on the subject and you led Duran to believethat I was in love with him? That's just mean!"

"You WERE head over heels for him - I was telling the truth! How was I supposed to know that you'd just change your mind and start chasing after Hawk at the drop of a hat?" the glorified pixie protested.

"Hawk?" Duran wondered.

"FAIRY!"

"Eeep!"

"So it's true, you did like me at some point Angela?" the Mana Knight questioned.

"When we first met, yes," she admitted uncomfortably. She didn't like the direction this conversation was taking. She shot another glare at the tiny deity.

"But now you like Hawk," he confirmed.

"Er, yes." There was a glint in her comrade's eyes that she had seen on many men before. Great. The Paladin still thought he had a chance. She'd been hoping that when the time came she could just turn him down, let him get over it, and that it would all be sorted, leaving her free to pursue the true object of her affection uninterrupted. Unfortunately, she was starting to get the feeling that she wouldn't be that lucky. Of course she wouldn't be that lucky - recent fortune dictated as such. Damn the Fairy! This was all her fault! If the stupid little insect had kept her mouth shut, it would never have become this complicated!

"I see," was the only thing the Forcenan said to that. The Fairy had given up glaring and was now instead looking a little guilty, as she was rightly supposed to, spilling people's feeling and secrets all over the place like that!

The Princess realised that she was going to have to act fast. Taking advantage of the brief silence, she muttered, "I... I think that I'm going to go for a walk." She left the inn in a hurry, hastily picking up her Dragon Rod on the way out, leaving a pensive Mana Knight still standing in the centre of the room.

Once outside, she looked around, trying to locate their wayward comrade. She had to talk to Hawk before Duran did. The damn Fairy had forced her hand by spilling the beans like that. Well, that wasn't entirely true. The Princess was forced to admit that some of Duran's words had resonated deeply with her. They were going to Dragon's Hole tomorrow, after all, and it was still true that none of them really knew what could happen. She didn't want to have any regrets either.

Possessed by the sudden urge to find the thief and get it all out in the open and over with, she ran through the moonlit streets of the ancient city with a sort of desperate urgency, praying that the Rogue hadn't yet returned to the inn. Her careful planning might have been shot, but she didn't particularly care. She just wanted to find Hawk.

Not unexpectedly, the Rogue was the one to find her. "Angie! Where are you off to in such a hurry at this time of night?"

Barely stifling a surprised shriek, the Magus whirled to find her companion standing idly behind her. "Hawk? Don't DO that!"

The Navarrian just grinned.

She shook her head in exasperation. At least she'd finally found the elusive desert rat. "I was looking for you, actually."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Looking for little old me? Why, I'm flattered! To what do I owe such an honour?"

Less sure of herself now, the Princess replied, "I wanted to tell you something."

Nodding, he encouraged her to continue. "Okay. So?"

"Hawk... I...," she started, only just now realising that she had absolutely no idea what to say.

"Yes Angie?" he prodded.

"I... that is to say...," she stuttered.

Oh to hell with it. She was terrible at confessions. Best to just get straight to the point. Abandoning all attempts at speech, she just grabbed the thief by from the front of his vest, pulled him towards her, and pressed her lips against his. It was hard to tell which of the two of them was more surprised by this sudden action. After a split second, though, she felt the Rogue start to respond.

Time seemed to stop. She'd felt nothing when she'd kissed Duran. This, however... this felt right. Forget right. This felt WONDERFUL. She'd kissed dozens of men in her lifetime, but none of them had affected her quite like this. She had it bad. Head over heels. For a few seconds there, she'd almost forgotten that a universe actually existed outside the two of them. All coherent thought ground to a halt as she stood there with the thief in the moonlight.

Just as soon as it started, though, it ended. Bliss dissolved into shock when the Navarrian suddenly jerked away, breaking the kiss. Angela opened her eyes again, surprised. "Hawk?" She moved back towards him, eager to repeat the experience.

"Don't, Angie!" Hawk warned, stepping away, amber eyes glaring at her with unprecedented intensity. She was surprised to recognise anger and hurt in his expression, taking an unconscious step back from the power of it. "Don't mess with me like that! Just... don't."

With no further words, the Rogue stalked soundlessly back towards the inn, leaving the Princess standing there like a stunned rabite.

What by the Goddess had just happened?

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Mwa ha ha hahahaha! Please review. 


	51. The Very Worst Time To Be Distracted

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.

Author's note: Finally, the next chapter! It's the longest one yet I believe. Personally, with the way updates have been going lately, I'm rather glad that I'm pretty close to the end. In all honesty, I've not really wanted to work on Another Witchmaker lately – it's been dragging on too long, and while I still enjoy it, I'd rather be moving onto other projects now, and I think that's starting to be reflected in both the update delays and the overall quality of the chapters. A few of the more observant reviewers have been picking up on the increasing sloppiness, forced style and jilted flow for some time now. I'm doing my best to do a proper job and give the story a good ending, though. Regardless, I've learnt (and am learning) a lot from the mistakes I've made on this fic, so thanks to those of you who're still sticking it out.

I still rather miss the Response to Reviewers section. Several reviewers often bring up similar questions, and it saved me having to answer them multiple times. Ah well, it's a shorter scroll to the pretty line and start of the story! Usual thanks to everyone for their patience.

* * *

**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 51 – The Very Worst Time To Be Distracted

By Sinnatious

* * *

After Hawk left, Angela stood in the pale moonlight for quite some time, not quite able to grasp what had just transpired. What did the thief mean? Had Hawk... just turned her down?

It was all wrong. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen! She KNEW that the thief liked her! He'd sent all the right signals! She had enough experience with men to think that she knew the difference between one that was attracted to her and one that wasn't. In her mind, it had never even been a question worth considering. There simply wasn't the possibility that she was wrong about the Navarrian's feelings! He'd responded to the kiss, and she knew that he had enjoyed at least as much as she had!

So why? Was he STILL hung up over Jessica? She never had really managed to figure out for sure exactly what the relationship between the two of them had been. What possible reason did he have for pushing her away like that?

As though suddenly noticing how late it had become, Angela abruptly turned back towards the inn. Dammit, she'd fireball an explanation out of the thief if she had to! Don't mess with HIM like that? What about messing with HER? Hawk was screwing everything up! She was supposed to turn down Duran, he'd get over it, run off with Riesz or some other pretty girl out of the three or four he'd met, she'd confess to Hawk, Hawk would reciprocate and they'd spend a glorious night at some comfy inn somewhere getting intimate. But he just had to go screw everything up!

Even as she hurried back to the inn, though, hands itching to blast off her frustrations with a few well-placed spells, doubt began to seep into her mind. Could she have the situation with Hawk wrong? Maybe he really didn't like her?

That particular notion was just too much to deal with at this point in time, so she settled for simply temporarily shutting her brain down and replaying long-overused fantasies about Koren and Carlie's deaths. She'd deal with it later. Along with everything else she was putting off indefinitely. First order of business was getting a hold of that damn desert rat and demanding an explanation from him.

When she returned to the inn, though, Hawk was nowhere in sight. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair and headed off to have a bath, thankful that Duran appeared to have fallen asleep. There was no finding the Rogue when he didn't want to be found.

She emerged a short time later, feeling only marginally better from the hot bath, but the Navarrian still hadn't returned. She waited up for several minutes, before finally giving in and going to bed. If he was going to be like that, then Angela would just confront her companion in the morning.

Needless to say, she didn't sleep well at all, taking a long time to fall asleep, and when she did, she kept waking up and checking to see if her violet-haired companion had returned yet. He apparently didn't come back to the inn that night, though. She wouldn't put it past the Rogue to sleep in tree - he'd done it before, after all.

She must have eventually managed to drift off properly, though, because it seemed like an incredibly short time later when she was awoken by a hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake. Blearily, she opened her eyes, disappointed to discover that it was Duran instead of Hawk. Thankfully, the Fairy wasn't out and buzzing about as she tended to do at this time of day. Hopefully the little gnat was feeling ashamed for her many misdemeanors and was hiding in the Paladin's skull where she belonged.

"I'm sorry to wake you up, Angela, but it's starting to get late and we really should be getting a head-start to the Glass Desert," Duran informed her. The Forcenan looked as though he desperately wanted to say something else as well, but held his tongue. Her companions had at the very least learnt that it was best to keep all forms of communication to a bare minimum until the Princess had properly awakened.

"Okay, okay, I'm up," she grumbled, throwing back the sheets and rubbing her eyes. She shuffled off to the bathroom to refresh herself, idly noting Hawk setting out breakfast on the inn's lone table. So, he'd obviously come back eventually. The bastard even had the nerve to look perfectly well rested, though she'd seen the Rogue go without sleep for plenty of times before without ever seeming bothered by it. She squashed the urge to confront him then and there, feeling much too tired at the moment to deal with anything and not wanting to have Duran and the Fairy as witnesses either.

When could she talk to the Navarrian, though? The Magus pondered this carefully as she splashed some cold water onto her face and ran her fingers through her lavender hair in an attempt to style it. They were heading off to Dragon's Hole today, and she had no idea how long tracking down Koren and this Dragon Emperor there could take. It was a bit optimistic to think it might be taken care of within the day. And she really didn't want to have any conversations on this topic with Duran in earshot - the Paladin didn't strike her as the type that would give up easily, especially as she suspected the Fairy was still egging him on from the inside. When she got her hands on that blasted luminous parasite...

She hated putting it off. The relief she'd felt when she'd finally gone and confessed - she counted unprovoked molestation as a confession - was fantastic. The Princess didn't want to wait for the right moment anymore. Direct was best - neither of these damn guys were subtle enough to take a hint.

There was no helping it. She had to find some way to get Hawk alone. There was bound to be an opportunity at some point.

Resolute, the lavender-haired beauty headed back into the inn to join her two comrades for breakfast. She greeted them both with forced cheerfulness, determined to pretend that nothing had changed. Duran returned her greeting enthusiastically and Hawk barely gave her a nod. She frowned a little at that.

Nothing more was really said for the rest of breakfast, with not even the Fairy making an appearance for what had to be a remarkable run of mostly Fairy-less breakfasts. It didn't have the feeling of a last meal that many of their morning feasts had started to take on, but it was stiff and uncomfortable none-the-less. Angela didn't want Duran to think that she might change her mind, so she was trying to remain curt and civil, and Hawk seemed to be doing a very good job of ignoring the Magus's many attempts to catch his eye.

This was the worst-case scenario, Angela thought as she munched miserably on a piece of fruit. Things were painfully awkward now. After that whole embarrassing incident in the Molebear Highlands, it had taken a while for the Rogue to grow comfortable around the Forcenan again, but now it was Duran who was acting stiff and formal around his companion as he suddenly perceived the Rogue as a rival for the Princess's attentions. Neither of the two men were acting normal with her, either. The previous night had completely messed up their group dynamic.

Breakfast finally finished, they made to leave the inn, Angela still not able to grab the Rogue's attention. She was momentarily distracted, though, when instead of being greeted by the ancient lost city as they left the inn, they were confronted with a shallow stream and empty clearing that looked familiar.

Of course. She'd almost forgotten about Lost City Pedan's strange magic and time anomalies. The Magus gave herself a small shake as Hawk called Flammie, idly wondering if Carlie had managed to find what she was looking for on this crazy isle.

All too soon they found themselves riding the white dragon towards Dragon Hole. Duran was once again situated between herself and the thief, the Magus noted sourly, not that she was considering trying to confront Hawk that high up in the air. It occurred to her as the shores of the Glass Desert became visible that she really should have been more concerned about the imminence of her long-awaited confrontation with Koren than sorting out her love life. She'd been daydreaming about her revenge for months now - she should have been tense with anticipation, not brooding over the current disastrous state of her relationship with Hawk!

The towering mountain known only as Dragon's Hole rose up to meet them. "Just drop us off somewhere near the top, Flammie!" Duran ordered. They weren't really sure how much the overgrown flying kitten could understand, but she never seemed to have much trouble figuring out directions.

Except for now. The white dragon suddenly balked, wheeling towards the ground near the base of the mountain as though to drop them off. Angela lurched at the sudden change of direction, fingers grasping at the white fur of Flammie's back in an effort to steady herself.

"Flammie! Not here! Flammie, just a bit further!" Hawk beseeched the dragon. Apparently even the adorably cute beast's affection for the Rogue wasn't enough to change her mind, though, as she practically crashed into the sparkling sand of the desert, the force of the impact throwing the trio from her back.

Groaning as she picked herself up from the ground, the Princess raised her head just in time to see the white dragon launch herself back into the air, taking off with incredible speed in the opposite direction. In what must've been seconds, their steed was out of sight. They all knew that their dragon was fast... but not quite THAT fast.

The sand settled after a moment, allowing an eerie silence to creep over the group of heroes. After a moment, Angela couldn't handle it anymore. "Well, that certainly isn't a good sign," she observed feebly. Glancing at the surroundings briefly, she was relieved to note that Dragon's Hole wasn't that far away - the cowardly beast had merely dropped them near the base of it before fleeing. The Magus thought she could even spy a cave entrance.

"We'd better keep moving," Duran suggested, looking a little unnerved by the lifelessness of the Glass Desert. For one, it wasn't nearly as warm as a desert should have been, and the sparkly nature of its sand made it look almost artificial. The lack of vegetation in Navarre made sense - it was simply too hot for anything to survive. Here, it was just creepy. And what little vegetation Navarre had was at least expected in a desert – cacti and the like. In the Glass Desert, 'vegetation' meant dead trees.

"Yeah," Angela agreed, stalking ahead of the others towards the cave. Geography had never been her best subject, but Jose had been pretty good at drumming all sorts of general knowledge into brain, so she did know a little about Dragon's Hole - not that there was much known about it to begin with. First of all, despite the fact that it was clearly a mountain, it was known as Dragon's Hole because the mountain contained a huge network of caves that had been burrowed out by the dragons living there over the centuries. With that knowledge in hand, she figured it was probably going to be a lot easier to find their way to the Dragon Emperor's Palace through the caves than it would be by climbing the treacherous cliffs from the outside.

She couldn't quite shake the unpleasant sensation settling in the pit of her stomach, though. Hawk was looking a little apprehensive too, she noticed, and even Duran appeared unsettled by something. What was it? The Mana felt warped and twisted, but they were used to that by now. There was something familiar about the magic, though, something she couldn't quite pinpoint... as they approached the cave entrance, she was sure she should know... that it should be obvious... if Hawk wasn't being so stubborn about avoiding talking to her, they could just discuss it openly and make some progress! The Princess inwardly fumed at her companion's moody behaviour and her own frustration at not being able to pay proper attention to anything or anyone other than the Rogue. He was just so perplexing...

The Magus's breath suddenly hitched, though, when they crossed the threshold into the darkness of the cave. This magic..…. this magic was...… this was...…

The cave was pitch black, with none of the glaring light from the desert outside seemingly able to penetrate the darkness for more than a few steps in. As they tentatively moved deeper into the cave, even that source of light vanished, until they were completely encompassed - Angela reached blindly for her companions, finally finding an arm. She ran her hand up the arm to the shoulder, her fingers eventually finding smooth fur. Hawk's Silverwolf Pelt. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Hey Hawk. Duran? You here too?"

"I'm here," he called from somewhere to her left. A moment later, the Princess felt a hand grab at her chest. Feeling her face heat up, she swatted the appendage away violently.

"Hands off, pervert! I expect that kind of behaviour from Hawk, not from you!" Of course if it had been Hawk it would have been welcome.

"Ack! Sorry Angela! It's dark, I couldn't see..." the Mana Knight squeaked. Funny, she'd never heard the Paladin's voice go quite that high before.

The Rogue was being strangely silent next to her. The Magus desperately wished she could see his face. "Get the Fairy out here, we need a source of light!"

It turned out that they didn't need the Fairy after all, because rising from the darkness came what Angela was pretty sure had to be a hallucination. Three monstrous heads, two grotesque, one oddly beautiful. Each had horns protruding from their skulls and strange markings on their faces that seemed to sparkle with magic. Just floating there, the more feminine one to their front and the two ugly twins to each side. They had a strange luminescence that didn't reach the wall of the cave they were in, nor the floor above which they floated, but did let the trio catch the faintest of outlines of each other. Angela strained her eyes in the dim light to make out her companions, but all she could really pick up on was their silhouettes and a glint off Duran's armour and sword.

She whirled her attention back towards the more lithe of the two silhouettes when Hawk addressed her directly for the first time that day. She'd really appreciate it if he'd at least PRETEND nothing had happened...

"Angela…..," he began, voice croaking, "This twisted magic... isn't this... like the God-Beasts?"

The Magus retched as she finally recognised the familiar sensation. This suffocating magic... it felt like the sickening aura of warped Mana that escaped whenever they had killed a God-Beast! She remembered sensing it faintly when they fought Dolan, as well, but it had been so dim she'd chalked it up to the continuing deterioration of Mana's stability, and also figured her senses were still a little hypersensitive since becoming a Magus. Now though... there was no denying it. This was the aura of a God-Beast.

They'd killed all of the God-Beasts, though, hadn't they? They'd barely even slept over the course of the past few weeks in their mad rush to kill the God-Beasts before they could grow too strong and combine. They had succeeded too, if only barely! There was no way! No way that this... apparition... could be a God-Beast!

Unless... "The God-Beast of Darkness," she rasped out. "Shade's Mana Stone... the Stone of Darkness that went missing..."

The three floating heads seemed to stare at them with mild interest, obviously waiting for them to make the first move. There was no mistake. This was the God-Beast of Darkness.

"Zable Fahr," Angela whispered, the name floating up from her subconscious, quietly provided by Shade. Terror swept through her. This... this wasn't like the other God-Beasts at all. The mere fact that they could sense that twisted Mana so powerfully was proof enough. Was this the power of a fully evolved God-Beast?

"Should we make a run for it?" Hawk asked in an undertone, clearly intimidated. He didn't have the same sort of sense for magic that she did, but she knew that he was sensitive enough to pick up on the power difference. Even after their second class change, they'd struggled terribly against Dolan. And here was a God-Beast that had weeks extra to gather its power... maybe even years... they had no way of really knowing how long it had been free of its stone. Even Shade didn't know.

'Why didn't it leave? Why didn't it ever seek the other God-Beasts when they broke out?' she mentally demanded of Shade, feeling slightly panicky at this point in time.

The Elemental of Darkness's essence drifted to the forefront of her mind. Angela didn't like the way the God-Beast's eyes - all six of them, on separate heads - suddenly slid to her as he did so, either. 'It won't. Zable Fahr dislikes the sunlight. It would have remained here within the darkness of the caves until something forced it out, or another God-Beast came to combine with it.'

'Why HERE?' she mentally whined. 'Why couldn't it have set itself up somewhere where we'd never have to meet it!'

'Fate works in mysterious ways, young one.'

'Fate works to make my life miserable, you mean,' she grumbled, thinking once again to the previous night.

'You'd best pay attention,' the Elemental of Darkness gently advised her. 'It has already sensed my link with you. It just doesn't yet know if you are a worthy threat... Zable Fahr always was the laziest of the God-Beasts...'

During the Princess's internal conversation, Duran had finally caught up. "It's a God-Beast, right? Then we have to kill it! That takes priority!" With no further ado, the Mana Knight charged the nearest of the floating heads, sword held high.

"Wait, Duran!" Angela called out desperately. The Paladin didn't have the same sensitivity to magic they did - he thought it was going to be just like all of the other God-Beasts!

"It's not like we have a choice," Hawk commented from beside her. "We can't really leave a God-Beast here for someone else to stumble upon. Anyone else caught by surprise wouldn't even have a chance."

"Since when did you care so much about the fate of complete strangers?" Angela demanded grouchily, not feeling at all charitable towards the Navarrian after his behaviour all morning.

"Well, I don't, but the exits have been sealed," he rationalised. "And experience suggests that the only way we're getting out is if we kill it. Ready, Angela?" The Princess felt another wave of despair - this time she wasn't so sure if it was because they had no choice but to fight this monstrosity, or if it was because that was the second time that day that the Rogue had called her 'Angela' instead of 'Angie'.

Nearby, Duran had plunged his sword into the cheek of one of the grotesque floating heads. It blinked, but otherwise showed no sign of being affected by the wound. However, that one attack had definitely landed them in the 'foe' category, because several moments later Hawk was scrambling away from an Evil Gate that had opened underneath him. The floating heads remained eerily motionless.

Zable Fahr didn't like light, right? "HOLY BALL!" Angela yelled, blasting the circles of light at the centre head. This time, the God-Beast at least flinched, but there wasn't any visible damage. Seconds later, the Princess found herself diving to the side to avoid a beam of dark magic. The damn God-Beast was almost faster with magic than she was!

Things started to become pretty crazy after that. The Magus started throwing around Fire Balls and Holy Balls like there was no tomorrow, Duran kept slashing at the leftmost head, Hawk was throwing what looked like Grenade Bombs everywhere, and the God-Beast of Darkness in turn retaliated with Evil Gates, Dark Forces and Dark Beams . They were pretty sure that they were doing some sort of damage to Zable Fahr, but it didn't seem to show - for one, there was a relatively large size discrepancy, with each of the heads a good four of five times taller than what they were, so even Duran's mightiest of sword swings looked like mere abrasions. Angela was relieved to discover that her new robe absorbed most of the dark beams easily, meaning that if she didn't manage to dodge completely she didn't have to endure anything more than a mild stinging sensation that didn't particularly impede her ability to fight. Still, their lack of progress was slightly disheartening, and all of them were starting to become tired. Duran didn't seem terribly affected, but she noticed that both herself and Hawk were beginning to dodge only when absolutely necessary. She really was starting to feel the effects of that lost sleep - and she was slightly gratified to note that Hawk obviously hadn't slept well either, despite having had the nerve to look well rested earlier in the day. Served the bastard right for never coming back to the inn.

"Shit!" she cursed reflexively, only just now noticing the dark magic bearing down on her. She'd become so wrapped up in her train of thought that she'd stopped paying attention to the battle! The Magus braced herself for the impact of the Dark Beam, praying that her robe would absorb the worst of it. Even so, as a direct hit the magic felt more like a burning punch to her stomach than the usual mild sting. She doubled over briefly, but managed to keep her footing. That would definitely leave a bruise.

"Angela!" Duran called out in concern. She nodded briefly to indicate that she was fine, waving a gloved hand in an attempt to stave off any healing magic gestures. There was no point in the Paladin wasting his comparatively small magic reserves in unnecessary healing spells just because he fancied her.

To her surprise, though, instead of attempting to heal her, the Forcenan turned back towards to the God-Beast with a steely glint in his eyes. He pressed his palm flat against the blade of his sword, and a moment later, the entire sword began to glow with a holy light. With a mighty war cry, the Paladin thrust the blade deep into the throat of the leftmost floating head.

Even with the sword buried to its hilt in its throat, it didn't make a sound - Zable Fahr as of yet hadn't made even a whisper of noise. It did, however, change its usual stoic expression to open its mouth in an 'O'. To their collective surprise, seconds later the head vanished from sight, back into the impenetrable shadows that didn't seem to fade no matter how many Holy Balls and Fire Balls Angela threw into them.

The Magus felt a brief surge of relief. Of course - a holy sabre! Saint Sabre, if she recalled her magic lessons correctly. Maybe this God-Beast of Darkness was defeat-able after all!

Their sense of approaching victory was short-lived, however, as what little light that was left in the cavern seemed to vanish. Relief was quickly replaced by a rising sense of dread in the Princess's stomach as she sensed the tendrils of dark magic rising around them. The air began to crackle with electricity. Then, an instant later, the crackles of magic exploded into massive arcs of black lightning.

There was no way to dodge! Angela winced, bracing herself for the impact. To her surprise, there was none. Opening her eyes, she caught sight of a transparent green barrier that Hawk had used before. It strained, and then shrugged off the magic, returning it to its caster. Angela's brief sense of jubilation quickly turned to horror when instead of inflicting damage, though, the dark magic was merely absorbed back into the God-Beast, healing cuts that Duran had inflicted right before their eyes.

While they were momentarily in shock at the sight of their hard work being casually undone, Zable Fahr decided to unleash another surprise upon them. The grotesque left head that Duran had already slain quietly faded back into existence. Angela choked, barely resisting the urge to cry out and beat the ground. "That's not fair! It can't just come back from the dead like that!" It was enough to nearly send her into hysterics. She was already exhausted - it had felt like they'd been fighting forever, and over half of her body either tingled or ached from the many spells she'd been unable to dodge completely. And now, to be confronted with the possibility that the God-Beast might not even be killable... that it could revive itself at will... were they doomed? Despite the fact that they'd managed to kill its seven brethren, would this God-Beast simply be too much?

Magic crackled in the air, warning the Magus of another spell about to be cast. She glanced about furtively, trying to locate the direction it might come from - they'd all come awfully close to being fried by the last one, and Hawk's hasty shield had barely handled it - with how ragged the thief was starting to look, she'd also be willing to wager he'd used up quite a bit of his own magic reserves doing it, too, so they couldn't rely on it again. Her trepidation grew as she noticed all three heads had their eyes closed. Was it a combination spell? If so, which of the heads would act as the anchor? Which direction would it come from? Left, right, centre?

Slowly, the Magus raised her eyes heavenward. There it was - Hell's Cross. She'd only read about it in books before - not even Jose had lectured her on this one. Humans couldn't cast it, after all. By now, the Princess figured she had enough first-hand experience with Underworld magics that she could write an authorative book on it. In this particular case, though, she cursed her magical upbringing - this was one instance where she felt that ignorance really would have been bliss.

The cross overhead pulsed ominously. Then, as it was named, hell was unleashed.

Flame. Lightning. Darkness. That was all the Princess of Altena could see. The spell slammed into them like a massive hand, knocking them to the ground. Dear Goddess, the PAIN! Angela nearly bit her tongue in her effort not to cry out. Her ears were filled with the sound of roaring wind and distorted screams as she writhed, trying to escape the destructive magic that tore at them.

After an eternity, the sound died down and she grew aware that the air was clear of dangerous elements once again. She coughed, then tried to force herself back up from the ground, cursing her protesting muscles. It was hard to tell how much damage had been inflicted - she registered several gashes, burns, and possibly fractured bones, but it was hard to tell. Overall, she felt numb. Idly, she wondered how much worse off she would have been without her new Ancient robe.

Hawk! It was difficult to focus her eyes as she searched out her companion, desperate to know that he was okay. She breathed a sigh of relief when she caught sight of his prone form, the slight rise and fall of his chest reassuring her that he was only unconscious. There was a clink of armour somewhere nearby, informing her of Duran's survival. She managed to succeed in dragging herself to her knees, keeping a wary eye on Zable Fahr for any more surprises.

After a moment, she was aware of the healing touch of Wisp's magic. The Magus nodded gratefully at her companion - it hadn't taken care of all of her injuries, but it was enough for her to stand and fight. Duran himself was looking rather bedraggled, his previously pristine armour now scratched and sooty. The Paladin cast cure magic on the Navarrian, who stirred a moment later, then dragged himself back to his feet with a groan.

"You okay?" Angela asked in concern.

"I'll live," grunted the Rogue. "More importantly, let's not give it another chance to try that again." He turned to the rightmost head, produced an axe almost as tall as himself out of what seemed to be thin air, and with surprising strength and accuracy threw it directly at the centre horn of the gargoyle-like entity. It cracked the horn in half, embedding itself in the centre of the forehead. Suddenly, Hawk snapped his fingers and the axe exploded with a resounding boom, even shaking the ground beneath their feet. When the smoke cleared, the floating head had vanished.

Not even willing to take the chance to take a sigh of relief, Angela attacked the other two heads with a barrage of Holy Balls, with Duran hacking at the leftmost head with his Saint Sabred sword until it vanished from sight again. Panting from the exertion by now, the Magus turned back to the centremost head, brandishing her Dragon Rod. The sheer number of Holy Balls she'd cast was beginning to deplete her magic reserves, but she was pretty sure that she still had a stock of magic herbs. Still, could she afford to stop attacking even for a second? What if the other heads revived again? With her Ancient Robe and Tiara in addition to her innate resistance to damage dealt by dark magics she could survive even some of the really powerful spells, but she wasn't so sure if Hawk and Duran would be able to handle another one.

"Holy Ball! Holy Ball! HOLY BALL!" She cast again and again, taking any gaps left opens between Duran and Hawk's attacks. She stepped aside to avoid a Dark Bolt, and Duran ran back to avoid an Evil Gate. To their right, one of the monstrous twins faded back into existence again. The Princess had the intense urge to cry. Would it ever end?

They continued their pattern of attack, splitting their time between the two, fervently hoping the third would not be revived again. It seemed like the red and white centre head was slowly being worn down at the very least. The Princess was wary, though, sensing the magic building up in the air again. It was the very darkest of magic, and she didn't want to get caught up in whatever it was. She absently cast another Holy Ball, being sure to keep her distance.

That magic... her eyes roamed the dark cavern - at some point, her eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to make out Zable Fahr and her companions clearly - before finally landing on the Rogue. The guy was such an enigma. She had been so sure she'd had him figured out for a while there... wait, that magic was centring on HAWK!

A sphere of dark magic was slowly beginning to form around the Navarrian. He threw himself backwards in an effort to dodge, but the gradually darkening sphere merely followed him. That spell... Angela hadn't thought things could get any worse, but Zable Fahr had proven her wrong. That was a Death Spell!

"No! You can't have him!" she shouted, whirling back to the largest of the heads. She had to stop it! She had to kill the God-Beast before the spell was completed! Zable Fahr would not take Hawk from her! She still had to Fire Ball him to the Underworld and back for making her angst over him for so long!

The Magus needed a spell to finish it. She wished that she had a greater affinity for light magic, but she already knew that her talent with Wisp's element was limited. Still, a high level spell ought to be enough to interrupt the God-Beast's casting. Her mind raced with possibilities. Settling on the most appropriate option, she hurriedly tried to gather the magic necessary for the spell, time itself seeming to slow down as she raced to cast before Zable Fahr could. It seemed to be inordinately difficult to gather her magic, though, and even harder to control it and mould it into a fashion she could use.

The Princess cursed herself, starting to panic as the sphere of dark magic around Hawk became almost opaque. She could fire off most of her lower-level spells in her sleep, but any of her higher-level magic required a fair amount of concentration, and her mind was still cluttered after that whole debacle with Hawk and Duran the previous day. Dammit, she needed a spell and she needed it now!

She wasn't sure if it was instinct or just desperation that caused her magic to spike suddenly. In her panic, she released it, subconsciously aware of how unstable it was.

Then the cave exploded into flame.

Fire surrounded them, bursting outwards in a violent shockwave. Hawk and Duran both dove for the ground, leaving the God-Beast to take the brunt of it. The entire cavern shook - Angela was dimly aware of crouching and covering her head with her arms as chunks of rock and debris rained from the ceiling. The huge wall of fire shone brightly, properly illuminating the dark recesses of the spacious cavern for the first time since they had entered.

A short time later, an strangely peaceful silence settled, and the Magus finally dared to raise her head, wincing at the burns she'd suffered from her own spell, in addition to the bruises and cuts she'd managed to acquire from falling rocks. Whipping her head towards Hawk, she was relieved to see him groaning and attempting to sit up, covered with soot and dust. The Death Spell had been interrupted. The cavern was empty, and natural light now streamed in through the entrance to the Glass Desert. It had only been a dozen or so strides away the entire time.

Zable Fahr was gone. Angela gagged as the escaping wave of sickening, twisted Mana washed over them - she was dimly aware of Duran coughing and Hawk retching similarly nearby. It made her dizzy enough to almost pass out, but she held on, trying to sort through what had happened. The centre head - the beautiful one, with its red markings and pale white skin - had been the core. The Magus half-gasped at the realization, more annoyed at her slowness at picking up that obvious deduction than anything. Where WAS her mind today? The God-Beast had forever been two steps ahead due to her inattention. Realistically, they were incredibly lucky to have even survived, much less have escaped without having to cure magic themselves multiple times just to be able to walk.

Speaking of which... she winced when she caught sight of Duran, half buried under several large chunks of rock that her spell had dislodged from the ceiling. His armour seemed to have spared him any serious damage, but the Paladin's leg was almost certainly broken, and he seemed to have lost consciousness from the pain. That was annoying - they'd have to set it before he used Wisp's cure magic on it. All of them had suffered bad burns from her spell too by the looks of it.

Figuring that with Duran incapacitated, it was up to her to sort everyone out, she crawled over to Hawk, trying to ignore her own injuries. Quite frankly, she was glad that she still had her hair and eyebrows. She'd seen plenty of young witches in the army mess up a fireball and walk around half bald for months. The Princess would have to trim it again regardless, much to her annoyance, as the tips had been singed, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that it could have been worse.

"Hawk." The Rogue had managed to drag himself into a sitting position, half facing away from her, and looked like he was still trying to catch his breath. She held out one of her healing elixirs. "Here, Duran's out cold."

He waved her off, though. "It's not too bad. We should save those for an emergency. Once he wakes up, we can get him to use cure magic then. Jeez, Angela, what WAS that spell? You nearly fried all of us to a crisp there!"

"What? That was a small price to pay! You'd be dead if I hadn't done that!" she retorted defensively.

"As touched as I am by your concern, Angela, I can manage on my own," he replied. "You DO realise what a huge lecture the Fairy is going to give you over this one, right? Duran and I have to listen to those too, you know."

The Princess shook her head. The thief truly had no idea how close to death he had come. She valiantly tried to still her shaking hands. "If the stupid gnat was more useful, I'm sure we wouldn't wind up in these situations," she grumbled, helping the thief to his feet, his touch reassuring her that he had indeed survived.

"True," he admitted, then looked away. She resisted the urge to groan at his stiffness. She never thought she'd see the day when she actually YEARN for one of his perverted comments... those were a million times better than Hawk acting so reserved around her.

Together they dug out and dragged the unconscious Paladin from the cave into the Glass Desert. Neither of them really wanted to stay in that cave, even if that probably would have been a better place to recuperate in. Still, they took comfort in the late afternoon light after being enclosed in that unnatural darkness for hours. How long had they been fighting the damn God-Beast for, anyway?

The uncomfortable silence continued as they set about straightening Duran's broken leg while he was still comatose. Well, it mostly Hawk doing the work, seeing as however much the Princess had managed to overcome her squeamish side - and she HAD made remarkable progress - over the course of their travels, there were still some things that she had trouble bringing herself to do. It wasn't the first time they'd had to set a broken bone before it could be healed, of course, but the previous time the Magus hadn't even managed to bring herself to watch, much less help. She could deal with hacking up zombies, impaling wolves and the sight of dozens of corpses, but there were just some things that she didn't think she'd ever quite get used to. Times like this were times where she really did miss life in the palace.

It occurred to her that with Duran unconscious, this might be a good time to have the necessary heart-to-heart with Hawk, but even as the thought occurred to her, it looked like the thief had finished. "Angela?" he prodded.

"Oh, right." She hurriedly administered one of the merchant cats' healing potions, massaging the Mana Knight's throat to make certain that he swallowed it. A moment later, the Paladin's eyes fluttered open. Almost immediately after that, a bright glowing nuisance burst from his head.

"What was WITH you guys out there today?" the Fairy berated them. "You nearly got yourselves killed! Pay attention - this is no time to be getting cocky! Honestly, you've all been acting so strange all day - what's the problem?"

Irritation bubbled up inside of the Princess. The damn shiny gnat couldn't figure out what their problems were? She and her big mouth were at least half of the problem! The damn Fairy was practically the cause of this entire mess!

That was probably only partially true, but damned if the Magus was going to admit to that. "Shut up, you irritating insect! You're lucky I don't swat you here and now! We were hardly expecting to come across the God-Beast of Darkness!"

"Angela! See what happens when you so recklessly use such powerful magic? I KNEW it was going to mean trouble when you became a Magus! You have to concentrate! You can't just use that power whenever you feel like it!"

"Excuse me, but what POSSIBLE better time could there be to use it if not when facing a God-Beast?"

"Angela, Hawk?" Duran had apparently regained both consciousness and coherency. "What happened to you?"

"A Magus who can't control her magic is what happened, that's what!" the Fairy huffed.

"I controlled it fine! It was the Explode spell! I just let it off a little too close is all!" Granted, it had been a somewhat accidental discovery of how to cast that particular spell - one she'd heard the name and description of, but never read about - but that was beside the point.

"Regardless, I think that we would both appreciate some of your healing magic, Duran," Hawk suggested, voice a little strained.

"Oh, of course," Duran quickly cast cure magic on them both, Angela letting out a sigh of relief as her burns healed and wounds closed. She was still exhausted, both physically and magically, but it was a definite improvement. It was somewhat disquieting to consider how things might've gone on their crazy little quest without the convenient touch of Wisp's magic.

"What now?" the Mana Knight asked, apparently still trying to sort out everything that happened while the Fairy rambled on with her lectures in the background, having become background noise at some point.

"I don't think it's a good idea to go and fight the Dragon Emperor like this," Angela began hesitantly. "Maybe we're better of recuperating somewhere and having another shot tomorrow."

Frowning, the Paladin seemed to consider the idea, obviously not keen on the notion on putting off his mission to retrieve the Mana Sword yet again, but being unable to deny that even with a heavy dose of cure magic, they still felt like the walking dead. It wasn't a good way to be fighting dragons, much less red wizards and strange reclusive emperors. "Maybe it is a good idea to head off to an inn for the night."

The Fairy didn't object, though that may have been because she was still going on about the Magus's Explode spell in the background. Nodding his agreement, Hawk withdrew Flammie's drum to call her.

They waited a couple of minutes. Eventually, the Rogue used the drum again. When several more minutes passed without any sign of their previously trusty steed, their concern began to mount.

"Is it broken again?" Duran wondered worriedly.

They each had a turn inspecting it, but nothing seemed to be wrong. They tried calling her again, by which point they'd pretty much given up hope.

Ten more minutes passed. "I don't think she's coming," Hawk announced needlessly.

"She's a damn coward, that's what the problem is," Angela complained. Though the complaint didn't make her feel any better, because the white dragon had always displayed an uncanny sense for danger. The knowledge that their previously relatively reliable steed wouldn't even come to pick them up certainly didn't make the mountain behind them look any more welcoming.

"Looks like we're camping, then," was the Rogue's gruff pronouncement, walking over to a dead tree nearby - whatever vegetation there was in the Glass Desert seemed to have died years ago - and deftly slicing off several branches with his daggers. After gathering a substantial armful of wood, he dumped it on the ground. "Angela, if you wouldn't mind..."

"Oh, right. Fire ball," she muttered absently. It was a pretty feeble fire ball, testament to her exhaustion, but it was just the right size for starting a camp fire - just in time, too, as the sun sunk below the horizon. She wasn't really looking forward to spending the night in this creepy, lifeless desert, but it was still a better option than that dark, dank cave.

They settled down around the fire, Angela excusing herself for a few minutes to give herself a quick bathe with Undine's magic. She shook what dust and soot she could out of her Ancient robe, then returned to their makeshift campfire. They shared around some of the food they'd stashed, setting a small amount aside for the next morning. Angela hoped that whatever business they had with the Dragon Emperor didn't take too long, otherwise they'd probably get hungry - none of them had really considered bringing too much in the way of rations.

"Are you sure you should just be sitting here when the Mana Sword could be in the hands of a lunatic with a contract with the Underworld?" the Fairy grumbled from atop Duran's shoulder once they'd finished eating.

"Dear Goddess, Fairy, do you WANT us to die? If we enter Dragon's Hole this exhausted, we won't last an hour! It's better to take a small risk than walk straight towards certain death!" Angela exploded, not for the first time sorely regretting giving up her Clenunnus Cane for the Dragon Rod.

Recoiling slightly, the tiny deity huffed, "Of course not! I'm just worried is all! Everyone's so touchy at the moment! Just don't say that I didn't tell you so!" With a flourish, the Fairy vanished into Duran's head.

With the chatter bag gone, an uneasy silence settled over the trio. Angela was getting sorely sick of uneasy silences. They really needed to sleep, which would have solved the problem, but it was hard to wind down so quickly from the battle.

"I'll take first watch," Hawk offered, breaking the stillness. It wasn't safe for all three of them to just sleep out in the open so close to Dragon's Hole.

"Which would you prefer, Angela?" Duran asked politely, "Second or last?"

"I'll take second," she said, more because it would be an opportunity to talk alone with Hawk than anything. That way, she'd be sure that the Forcenan would be asleep and the two of them couldn't be interrupted. They simply couldn't afford another debacle like that last battle. She wasn't sure if they'd even survive next time with their teamwork so screwed up, not even taking into account the price of her distraction.

That decided, she and Duran settled down on opposite sides of the fire, Hawk wandering a short distance away to perch on a rock. The Princess hadn't thought that she'd be able to get to sleep very soon, given her anxiety over her planned confrontation, but she must have, because it seemed like only a heartbeat later that Hawk was shaking her awake.

"Hawk?" she slurred, still half asleep. Twilight had only just set in when she'd last opened her eyes, but now there was a night sky filled with what seemed like a million stars overhead. The eerie silence was still there, though, broken only by the quiet crackling of the campfire and a gentle, cool breeze wafting over the glittery sand dunes.

"Sorry, Angie, it's your turn for watch," the thief replied.

Blinking rapidly in attempt to chase the cloudiness from her head, the Magus struggled to recall the important thing she had to do at this point in time. Her eyes fell to the sleeping form of the Mana Knight laid out on the other side of the fire, facing the stars. Oh, that was right. Sitting up so abruptly that it made her dizzy, she focused her attention back on the Navarrian.

He looked a wreck, with obvious bags under his eyes and fatigue in his posture. Even his hair was mussed - not so unusual in itself, but she had grown so used to Hawk always looking fresh and together in almost any circumstance that it was a little unnerving to see him like that. The Princess was almost tempted to just let the guy get some sleep and pursue this conversation later - he obviously needed it. But she had to take this opportunity now. She didn't know when she'd get another chance. It had driven her mad to even wait a day for the thief's explanation.

"You awake now?" he asked, studying her face. Seeing the clearness in her eyes, he nodded to himself. "I'm going to sleep. Wake up Duran in a few hours, and don't let the fire go out. There's some wood over there."

"Wait, Hawk... can I talk to you for a minute?"

The Rogue paused. For a moment, she didn't think that he was going to agree, but then he put his hands in his pockets and tilted his head questioningly in her direction. "And what is it that you want to talk about?" She didn't like the cool tone of his voice, and nearly chickened out right then because of it, but no Altenan Princess got this far in life without at least some guts. A serious conversation with Hawk seemed like relatively foreign territory to the Magus, but if she could face down Carlie, she could handle this.

"Um, maybe we can go over there? I don't want to wake Duran up," she whispered.

He shrugged and ambled a short distance away, Angela following close on his heels. She gauged their distance from the Paladin. She probably couldn't shout, but at least she could talk comfortably without having to worry about the Forcenan waking up and interrupting them.

She crossed her arms, flicked back her hair, and pinned the Rogue with a glare. Timid demeanour thrown away in half a heartbeat, she demanded only one thing. "Explain."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Explain. Why did you run off like that last night?"

"You need to ask?" He seemed incredulous.

"Yes! I should fire ball you to the Holyland and back for that! You don't treat a girl's confession like that! You'd better have a good explanation for your behaviour or I might STILL blast you to the heavens!"

"What about me? I factor into these scenarios, don't I? Am I supposed to just go along with it?" His amber eyes seemed to almost glow with an angry fire in the darkness.

"Go along...? You idiot, don't lie to me! I know that you enjoyed it!" She sputtered, flinging out her ancient robe and pointing a gloved finger indignantly at her companion.

"I thought it was the Fairy that read minds, not you."

"I don't need to read minds! It was plain as day! I can even prove it to you!" she snapped, moving towards the thief. She'd kiss the daylights out of him, and see if he had it in him to walk away this time!

The Princess froze, though, when a pair of tanned hands landed on her shoulders, keeping her arm's length away.

"Stop. You've taken it far enough, Angie," Hawk stated firmly, voice surprisingly bitter. "I didn't mind at first, but you don't need to go that far to get to Duran. I have feelings too, you know."

With that, the Rogue turned on his heel and headed back to their campfire, leaving Angela to stand there in the moonlight by herself once again, gaping like a stunned rabite.

That wasn't even remotely close to how she wanted to confrontation to go. She watched, stunned, as the Navarrian laid down by the fire, back to her, arms folded up under his head, before giving herself a quick shake to pull herself back together. At least she had some answers now.

The Princess inspected several rocks near the campfire before selecting the one that looked the most comfortable. Once settled, she rested her gaze on the object of her affections, not even slightly satisfied with the outcome of their conversation but not quite so heartless as to deprive him of any more sleep he obviously needed. She had been right about one thing... Hawk DID like her. She was sure of it now. Not that she'd ever doubted her intuition in the first place. Heck, she'd have to be blind to have missed the signs.

Angela sighed, too tired to really get as worked up as she would like to. The overpowering quiet of the Glass Desert didn't help her mood either. So... there it was. Hawk wasn't agreeing to it because he thought that she was merely using him to get to Duran.

Which was true, or had at least once been true, she admitted guiltily, surprised at just how perceptive the desert rat actually was. But now... now things had changed. Now things had become Complicated.

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Please review. 


	52. Digging a Dragonsized Hole

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.

Author's note: Aha! I'm back! Bet that all of you thought me dead. Actually, I took a hiatus from Another Witchmaker, which was only supposed to be a month or two, and somehow wound up being a lot more. Oops. My sincerest apologies. While Another Witchmaker was gathering dust, though, I was busy working on several other fanfiction projects, so now I have about four half-finished stories from at least three different fandoms (All thankfully much, much shorter than this one). It was a nice break, but now I should really focus on getting the last four chapters of this fic out. So close! So close! As we come closer to the end, I've noticed that this fic has become more action adventure/romance than comedy/romance. Hmm. Feels like bad taste to make some of these big battles funny, though.

Anyhow, thanks as usual to all of the reviewers – especially those of you who are still putting up with my astronomically bad updating habits. I love you all! In a completely platonic way, of course. Enough of my rambling – you've waited long enough! On with the chapter!

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**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 52 – Digging a Dragon-sized Hole

By Sinnatious

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Angela awoke the next morning with a throbbing headache, which she instinctively blamed on the Fairy, but was surprised to find her cranium Fairy-free. Grumbling at her own tiredness, she shuffled through as much of a morning routine as she could considering that they were in the middle of a desert, resisting the urge to ask Duran for a healing spell as she hardly needed to give Hawk any more ammunition on his perceived relationship between herself and Duran, or Duran any encouragement on his own hopes for that matter. Besides, she suspected the dull buzz was more the Elementals getting worked up about something, if Hawk's muttered swearing nearby was any indication.

"Something wrong?" Duran asked, concerned as he glanced at the foul expressions of his companions.

The question had been directed at her, but Hawk was the one who answered. "The Elementals sense something and are causing a mighty ruckus. But every time I ask, they won't say anything!"

Angela tried herself, but both Salamando and Shade - usually the most forthcoming with information for her - remained silent. Their agitation was obvious, though, and it was strong enough to both cause her head to hurt and her own emotions to get thrown out of whack, as if they needed any more assistance.

"Hmm, Fairy? Fairy?" After a moment, the tiny deity answered the Mana Knight's summons, though she didn't flit about madly like she normally did. "Is something up?"

"I...," the tiny deity began, seeming uncomfortable. "I... well, that is to say... It's hard to be sure..."

"Just spit it out, gnat," Angela demanded, still cross about the lecture the day before.

They were surprised to see tears glistening in their miniscule guardian's eyes. "We don't know for sure, you know... it's just that there are rules... I'm sorry!" she blurted, suddenly diving back into Duran's head.

None of them quite knew what to make out of that, other than the fact that it was supremely unsettling. There was nothing to be done, though, as the Fairy refused to be coaxed or threatened back out of her host's skull. So it was with a feeling of immense foreboding that they entered Dragon's Hole and made their way towards the Dragon Emperor's Palace.

They hadn't made it past the first cavern of Dragon's Hole the day before, so Angela took the time to appreciate the natural spectacle of the legendary mountain that few people could say they had seen. She had discovered that if she poured a very small amount of Wisp's magic into her staff, the Altenan Princess could create a bright and steady light source without discharging it into a Holy Ball. It wasn't nearly as fun as tying the Fairy to the staff and using her as their lantern, of course, but at least it was quieter.

Dragon's Hole was quite spectacular, though, and if it wasn't for the heavy sense of doom hanging over them, not to mention the continuing stifling awkwardness, Angela might have even been able to bring herself to enjoy their navigation through the complex network of caves. The rocks the caverns were carved out of it were a vibrant shade of volcanic red, turned glassy from fiery breath of many dragons over hundreds of years. The caverns themselves were oddly shaped and wildly varied, from almost perfect domes to elongated jagged corridors. Their denizens were just as wildly assorted - the Magus saw dragons all colours of rainbow; some of them almost as big as Flammie, others small enough to be mistaken for lizards.

For the most part, if they left them be, the majority of the dragons were happy to ignore them so long as they made it obvious that they were only passing through. Others fiercely defended their territory, forcing the trio to fight their way past. More than once Angela found herself thankful for the Ancient Robe that shielded her from an angry dragon's flame.

They had no way of accurately gauging the passage of time in the caverns, but Dragon's Hole was vast, and they found themselves lost more than once in the maze-like structure. Still, she was confident that they were making some progress, as the rocks seemed to change from darker shades of red to lighter hues the higher they climbed. Also, Hawk's almost photographic memory and keen tracking skills prevented them from backtracking too much. Even so, it was a safe estimate to say that they'd been traversing the interior of Dragon's Hole for at least a day, and Angela felt her feet starting to drag.

"I never want to see another dragon ever again after this," she grumbled, tapping the end of her Dragon Rod on the rocky ground as they walked. "Unless it's Flammie. No, ESPECIALLY if it's Flammie. Great big fluffy coward, she could have saved us so much trouble if she just dropped us off at the TOP of the mountain!"

Keeping a wary eye on a group of red dragons to their far left, their esteemed Mana Knight didn't seem to lose his spirit. "Keep it up, Angela," he encouraged, "We must be close now; I can almost feel it."

"I can't feel anything through the Elementals' anxiety! They never mentioned these side effects when they gave us these blessings!"

"Buyers beware," Hawk quipped, waving a dagger threateningly at a small yellow dragon that was approaching a little too close. It seemed to rethink its decision, and retreated back towards the shadowy edges of the cave. "Besides, it's not like it's the first time they've been like this."

Angela rubbed her temples briefly. "Yes, but at least all of the other times we knew WHY they were getting upset."

"I think I see the end up ahead," Duran called, running ahead slightly.

"It's just another cavern," the Princess mumbled.

"No, I think I can actually see some natural light seeping through - not much, but we mustn't be too far away if it's getting through here," Hawk observed.

That picked up the Magus's pace. She ran forward eagerly. "Really? At last!"

There WAS natural light. Had they reached their destination at last? It was with some relief that the Magus extinguished the light emanating from her Dragon Rod. She turned back to greet her companions, who were following at a more sedate pace. "We made it at... Duran?" Angela trailed off, seeing the Mana Knight's expression suddenly shift and his posture grow tense.

With a sense of trepidation, the Princess slowly and carefully turned back around. Though the space had been empty mere moments before, now standing there calmly in the center of the monstrous cavern was one particular obstacle Angela was pretty sure all of them had forgotten about.

The Darkshine Knight.

She hadn't seen the mysterious stranger clad in black armour since Koren had taken the Sword from them. Come to think of it, they'd never seen him fight, or even speak. But Angela suddenly felt certain that the presence of this enigma in front of them was what had the Elementals so riled up. She didn't even know why, but she could feel herself beginning to tremble in fear.

This wasn't right. There had to be something else about the black-clad swordsman that was causing her to feel this way. She stretched out with her magical senses, almost afraid of what she would find. Indeed, there was a powerful aura of magic around him, but it wasn't something she was even remotely familiar with. It felt evil, but was that merely her own subjectivity? Whatever it was, it was powerful, and reeked of death. Only one thing was certain - it hadn't been cast by Koren. By now, she recognized the slight taint of the Crimson Mage's magical signature. But despite this powerful spell that seemed draped around their foe, she could tell that he himself wasn't terribly magical. If she had to guess, she'd rate his magical skill somewhere a little below Duran's. So if he himself hadn't cast that strange spell that hung around him like a poisonous cloud, who had?

She was jerked out of her musings when Duran spoke. "I don't know who you are, but I strongly suggest you let us pass. We have no particular quarrel with you." That mildly surprised her, and Hawk too, she could tell. The Paladin would normally be more than willing to challenge anyone even remotely affiliated with their foe. Could even he tell that something was terribly wrong with this stranger?

There was a painfully long silence as the Darkshine Knight regarded them. They couldn't even see his eyes from within that midnight black helmet and visor, so had no way of reading his expression. If it wasn't for the sheer sense of his presence, they could have been fooled into thinking they were facing an empty suit of armour.

When he did finally speak, Angela found herself starting from the shock. "I really did hope that this day would never come."

The voice was deep, rugged, and reverberated strangely from within the armour. Even so, the Magus couldn't shake the feeling that it sounded familiar somehow.

"Duran... I ask you to turn back now, before it is too late."

Angela directed her attention to Duran, who was standing between herself and Hawk. The Paladin was shaking, his eyes were wide, and his face had turned deathly pale. In short, he looked as though he had seen a ghost.

"It's not possible! It can't be! You're dead! They all told me you were dead!" he stammered, voice cracking.

"For all purposes, I AM dead, Duran. I died fifteen years ago at the hand of the Dragon Emperor. But for whatever reason, he saw fit to bring me back to life... though my will is no longer my own."

The spell... a spell to bring someone back to life and bind them to you? That wasn't just Necromancy... that was the sort of spell you could only perform with the Underworld's favour. Normal Mana power could never do something so evil. Wait... fifteen years ago?

The Forcenan seemed near hysterical. "It's not true! If you were alive, why didn't you ever come back! Why didn't you at least send word? Why are you working for HIM, Father!"

Angela jolted, finally stringing all of the pieces of puzzle together. Father? This was Loki, who the Dragon Emperor had supposedly killed fifteen years ago!

Her mind flashed to the Elementals and Fairy, and their recent unease. They had known! Even in Pedan, the Fairy had looked especially uncomfortable when they'd had their chance encounter with the past. That also explained the dark knight's unnatural silence when in their presence. But if he was here now...

She gripped her cane harder. In her peripheral vision, she could see that Hawk had already slipped into his own deceptively battle-ready stance, his amber eyes steely focused on their opponent. Duran didn't seem able to register the full meaning behind his father's words. This was not Loki any longer. This was the Darkshine Knight, and he was here today to stop them from reaching his Master, the Dragon Emperor. Even if Loki himself didn't want to fight them.

If ex-Knight of Gold noticed their change in attitude, he didn't show it. "The choice is not mine to make. If you do not leave now and swear to never return, I will have to kill you. Master cannot afford such inconveniences as a Mana Knight."

The Paladin had fallen to his knees. He was in shock. The Magus really had no idea how much, if any, of the Darkshine Knight's words were getting through.

"Impossible... Impossible...," he whispered brokenly.

"...Very well. I am saddened that it has come to this." The Darkshine Knight drew his sword.

"FIREBALL!"

A mighty burst of flame engulfed the black armoured form. The Magus ran in front of the distraught Forcenan, brandishing her Dragon Rod. Loki didn't seem even slightly effected, but before he could take a step forward, a shining crescent came out of nowhere and pierced through the armour over his left thigh. The magical light faded, revealing a simple curved blade embedded in the leg. Hawk appeared to her right, daggers at the ready.

Almost carelessly, the Darkshine Knight pulled the offending blade free and tossed it aside. "You're in the way."

"We won't let you touch Duran!" she shouted, already gathering her magic for another spell. The Paladin hadn't shifted from his position on the floor behind her. His eyes were wide and unfocused.

"He's not just the Mana Knight, he's our comrade. He might be a little slow at times, but he's a nice guy, and we've become rather attached to him," Hawk added, flipping his daggers to change his grip. "So if your Master wants to kill him, he has to go through us first. And let me assure you – we are not quite as nice. Especially HER. She'd REALLY scary."

"Yeah! You want to kill Duran, you have to take us on! Part of the package, buster!" Angela threatened, adopting her best 'I'm a Super Magus Who Could Fry You With The Flick Of A Finger' pose. Normally, that could render almost any merchant willing to lower their prices, but she had the terrible sensation that it was going to be totally ineffective here.

"So be it." Angela gasped at their opponent's sudden burst of speed, not even remotely prepared to dodge to incoming blow. Before she even knew what was happening, she was skidding across the floor, back colliding painfully with a boulder.

"Angie!" Hawk yelled out. Through the haze of pain, she managed to find some joy in the fact that he had - probably accidentally - called her 'Angie' again. Reflexively, she tried to stand, but hissed as the shooting pain stilled her movement. The black knight had only hit her with the hilt of his sword, but the force behind the blow had almost certainly broken ribs, and left her struggling for breath.

Not wasting a moment, the Darkshine Knight advanced on Hawk. The Rogue was fast enough to dodge the sweeping blade, but Angela was dismayed to see that her love interest was quickly being manoeuvred into a corner. The Navarrian attempted to dart out to the left, to escape the pincering walls, but was promptly slammed on the side of the head with the gauntlet of the black knight's free arm. Angela winced. That had to hurt.

Staggering back from the force of the blow, the agile thief failed to properly avoid the follow-up swing of the black knight's sword. As a shallow gash opened across the Rogue's chest, the Magus struggled to her knees, using her Dragon Rod as a crutch for support. Taking a second to catch her breath - how much internal damage had that one blow DONE, anyway? - she sent a quick glance over at Duran. Still practically comatose. They couldn't rely on him for any support. In a way, that might've been for the best - she wasn't entirely certain which side the Paladin might wind up on. Just because she'd quite happily take a few swings at one of her parents didn't mean that everybody would.

She glanced back to the fight in time to see Hawk stumble back against the rocks, blood starting to trickle down his arm from another shallow wound. He was beginning to look pretty beat up - he couldn't last much longer on his own. Try as she might to drag herself to her feet and join the fight, though, Angela's body refused to cooperate. Trying to push herself to a standing position using her cane, the world tilted strangely as pain lanced through her side. She stilled, gasping for breath. Loki was ridiculously strong - if he landed a direct hit, it was enough to put any of them out of commission at least temporarily. Both her and Hawk had armour that more equipped them against magic than brute force, leaving them at a sudden disadvantage.

"Nowhere to run anymore," the Darkshine Knight rumbled from within the midnight armour. He drew back his sword, and slashed down with a confident finality.

The heavy sword met a pair of curved daggers. The impact echoed noisily throughout the spacious cavern.

"Hawk," Angela breathed, forcing herself to remain calm. The Rogue had reminded her time and time again that he was quite capable of taking care of himself. Right now, she was really, honestly hoping that bragging was honest, and not just more hot air.

It was difficult to contain her concern though when she noticed Hawk straining against the lock as Loki put more and more strength into it, pressing his sword down against the pair of daggers. Even from where she knelt, she could see the slight trembling in the Navarrian's arms and the sweat beginning to bead on his tanned brow as he struggled to match the Darkshine Knight's force.

"Give up. There is no escape."

Hawk suddenly flashed an almost feral grin. "For you, maybe." Suddenly, he ducked and dived between the black knight's knees, rolling to his feet on the other side. Before Loki even had the chance to turn around, a small cascade of rocks dislodged themselves from the ceiling, raining down on their foe with a deadly precision.

Had the Rogue ALLOWED himself to manoeuvred into that position? They'd been fighting together for so long, and the desert rat STILL managed to surprise her on a regular basis.

"Angela, you okay?" he called, not taking his eyes off the pile of rocks.

"Just peachy," she gasped. "...Is he?"

The thief never had the chance to answer, as the Darkshine Knight literally exploded out of the small pile of rocks. Hawk was sent flying backwards from the shockwave, Angela herself pulling her Ancient Robe up to protect herself against the wave of fire that followed. What by the Goddess...?

She raised her face from the protective shield of fabric to see their foe, apparently nothing more than a little dusty, standing amongst a couple of pebbles with his sword embedded in the ground. A special technique, like Duran's Light Flash Blade?

They were in big trouble. A quick glance to her far right revealed Hawk lying on his side, coughing and valiantly trying to push himself up. He was lucky he'd landed on his stomach with his Silverwolf Pelt protecting him, otherwise he could have been seriously injured by that blast of flame.

With no more obstacles in his path, the Darkshine Knight once again advanced on the Paladin, who hadn't shifted even once through the battle.

That was too bad for him, because Hawk's little stunt had given the Princess a great idea.

She might not be able to move much, but she was still perfectly capable of using magic.

Letting her power build within her, she slammed her Dragon Rod onto the ground, pouring as much magic through it as she dared. "EARTHQUAKE!"

The ground began to shake with a dull roar, causing the black-armoured warrior to stagger. Spears of rock shot up around their enemy, even as boulders fell from the ceiling to crush him. Angela struggled to control the magic, keeping the spell as contained as possible, though she could feel the spell trying to travel deeper and deeper into the earth.

Boulder and rocks smashed against the armoured warrior, the rising dust in the air eventually obscuring her view of their target. She kept the spell going for as long as she could anyway, draining her magic down to the reserves, not wanting to take any chances. Finally she stopped, withdrawing her Dragon Rod with a gasp and slumping back into a sitting position. A moment later, the cavern stopped rumbling, the last pebbles scattered, and all was quiet again.

Angela peered through the dust, trying to ascertain the state of their foe. Her heart sank as she spied the black silhouette rising from the rubble. There was no way ANY human should have been able to stand up to that barrage - he had to have been crushed by at least half a tonne of rock!

She couldn't even find herself to be even slightly gratified by the fact that the his midnight black armour was cracked, dented, and even in a few places revealing actual human skin, reassuring them that there was an actual entity within the armour itself.

An angry whirlwind surrounded the Darkshine Knight as he raised his sword high in the air, and swung it down hard in her direction. There was no way to dodge the powerful blast of air, and the Princess was too tired to even try. She cringed as she was blasted back by the concentrated torrent of wind, wincing as the razors of air showered her exposed skin with shallow cuts.

Blinking back the dark spots encroaching on her vision, she was dimly aware of Loki's heavy footsteps moving towards her. Her fingers curled tighter around her Dragon Rod. There was no way that this man would beat them! They'd faced down eight God-Beasts! No human, not even a legendary Knight of Gold like Duran's Father, could possibly kill them!

Her conviction remained even as she sensed the Darkshine Knight standing above her, sword held high. She didn't have any ideas - she had enough magic for a Fire Ball or two, but that was it, and she knew that even if her Dragon Rod could hold up against Loki's sword, her own strength wouldn't be enough to block a direct strike. Still, she couldn't bring herself to believe that this was it. There was a score yet to settled with Koren... there was this crazy business with the Mana Goddess that against all odds she'd become mixed up in... and let's not forget she still hadn't had her way with Hawk yet, and she refused to die until she got the stubborn thief to comply!

The Darkshine Knight's sword descended as if in slow motion. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact, but it never came. When she opened them again, she was surprised to see a familiar handsome orange-haired figure standing in front on her, sword drawn.

She'd almost forgotten about Duran in the chaos. The Magus had more or less written him off for the entire battle, believing that it was going to be up to her and Hawk to take care of the Mana Knight's supposedly deceased father. It looked as though the Paladin had finally pulled himself together, just in time to be her knight in quite literally shining armour.

Of course, she would have preferred Hawk being the one to come to her rescue, but that was just being picky at this point in time.

"Duran," she whispered, voice not quite working properly.

"I won't let you hurt her," the Mana Knight declared firmly. Again, the Princess found herself glumly recalling another time when she would've been ecstatic about such a gesture from the handsome Forcenan.

"Then you leave me no choice, son."

"Don't call me that! You're not my father! My father was a good person! My father would never side with someone like the Dragon Emperor! He wouldn't kill a defenceless enemy!" Pushing forward, Duran started attacking the black knight for all he was worth, forcing Loki to step back and parry his blows.

Angela caught her breath, using the chance to fumble for one of the merchant cats' curative elixirs, cursing as she realised that Hawk must have stolen them again. Dear Goddess, even when they were having an argument he couldn't resist stealing from her? He could have at least left her one! A quick glance at the thief showed him struggling to set what looked like a broken leg. A nearby boulder seemed to be the cause. Oh, grand, he was REALLY going to be enamoured with her after that. Her magic seemed to be doing more harm than good these days.

Her Earthquake spell had slowed down the Darkshine Knight at least - he had a slight limp, and had been brought down to a more respectable speed, allowing Duran to drive him back. She didn't think the Paladin would get a chance to give either herself or Hawk a dose of cure magic, but if he could defeat Loki by himself, then it wouldn't really matter.

The swords clanged together noisily once again. The Darkshine Knight changed his stance, taking a few steps back to regain some distance before the next flurry of attacks. He seemed to be barely keeping up. Duran COULD win this.

No... the Paladin's swings were wilder than normal. The Princess admittedly didn't know a whole lot about sword-on-sword fighting, but she'd seen her companion fight often enough to recognise when he wasn't performing to the best of his ability. He was leaving plenty of openings, and while his speed and strength made up for it somewhat, his attacks themselves were unfocused and lacking their normal drive.

Could they rely on Duran? The Darkshine Knight's injuries had brought him back down to a manageable level, but that wouldn't do them any good if the Paladin couldn't centre his attention and fight calmly.

Wait... injuries aside, the Darkshine Knight was only really defending, and what attacks he did execute seemed half-hearted; nothing like the powerful blows he'd rained down on herself and Hawk. She doubted that he'd spent all of his energy on them, so did that mean... that he was going easy on Duran?

Were there really still vestiges of Duran's father's will inside that midnight armour?

The Paladin's sword began to shine with holy light. Saint Sabre.

"Duran, wait!" she called out reflexively.

It was too late. The Mana Knight charged; sword held recklessly high. As he brought the blade down, the Darkshine Knight dropped his sword. It clattered to the ground as though in slow-motion. Even from her vantage point, Angela could see her companion's eyes widen in shock, but he was fully committed to the strike, and couldn't pull out of it.

With the Saint Sabre forging his blade, it cleaved through the black armour as though it were butter.

Shaking, Duran withdrew his sword. Loki slumped to the ground like a rag doll a moment later.

The silence was deafening.

Dropping to his knees, Duran reached out towards the fallen figure as though in a trance. "What... why did... Father?"

Angela finally found enough strength in her muscles to push herself up and hobble over to the distraught and confused Mana Knight, wincing at the stabbing pain in her side. Yes, Loki had DEFINITELY gone easy on his son.

"Duran..." she laid a hand on his shoulder tentatively.

"Why did you do that? Why didn't you attack? ANSWER ME!" Duran yelled, shaking the body violently by the shoulder.

The Princess pulled his arm away. "Duran. DURAN! Stop it. Stop it already. He's dead. He can't answer you."

She caught sight of tears beginning form in her companion's normally bright blue eyes. "Why? Why did he drop his sword? It WAS father, wasn't it?" He made a move as though to lift the midnight-black visor, but the Magus laid her hand on his, shaking her head slowly.

"You did what you had to, Duran," she soothed. Dear Goddess, why was she always stuck on sympathy duty? Oh yeah, Hawk's leg was broken.

"I killed him. I killed my own father!" It was a little frightening to see the normally stoic Forcenan suddenly so un-composed. He was clearly being overcome by his grief, and quite frankly, the stress of the past few months surely hadn't helped his nerves. If she didn't get a handle on this quickly, it could turn into a full-fledged mental breakdown.

Mind racing for something appropriate to say, she blurted, "Duran! You didn't! You didn't really kill him!"

That at least caught the Paladin's attention. "Huh?"

Angela gestured at his sword. "See? No blood. He was already dead. He died fifteen years ago, remember? Even he himself said so. You just put him to rest is all. It's what he would have wanted." She really hoped that the knight didn't notice the droplets of blood leaking out of the black armour, or remember that his sword never got bloody whenever he used Saint Sabre on it.

Finally, the threatening tears spilled out of Duran's eyes onto his cheeks. Being the macho guy that he was, he tried to hide his face with his arm, but Angela could still see his shaking shoulders. Comforting people really wasn't her thing, but she wrapped her arms around him in a hug anyway, patting his back awkwardly and having no idea if she was helping at all. She didn't really ever HUG people... glomping and flirting was more her style. Her awkwardness only worsened as the embrace seemed to make Duran cry harder.

As she was hugging the sobbing knight, she happened to glance up and catch sight of Hawk, still quite incapacitated several strides away. He was quite openly staring at them, amber eyes glittering strangely, before he realised that she was looking and he returned his attention back to setting his leg.

What? Oh, dear Goddess, she was hugging Duran.

This was really ridiculous. She liked to think that she knew the thief well enough by now to recognise when he was upset about something, and if his expression was anything to go by, she'd just confirmed his erroneous suspicions that she was really interested in the Paladin. No! She couldn't win! Everybody's feelings were all completely out in the open, but nobody would believe anybody else! How by the Goddess was she supposed to sort this emotional mess out when even speaking the plain truth didn't get her anywhere?

She noticed the Elementals sitting in the back of her consciousness quite suddenly, and after a few moments, Duran's tears seemed to subside. She withdrew her arms as he started to recompose himself.

"Sorry about that Angela," he said, wiping his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "I was just a little overwhelmed. Give me a minute or so to sort myself out."

"Sure thing." She gave him some of his personal space, the Fairy materialising next to the Mana Knight's head as she did so, quickly zipping over the Princess.

"Angela? Might we, uh, have a quick chat?"

At least the irritating gnat was learning some manners and asking permission for once. Glancing again at the Forcenan, she finally conceded, "Okay, but don't you DARE go peeking in any of my thoughts!" She was confident that nowadays the Fairy could only dig into their most surface thoughts anyway. A moment later, the tiny deity vanished from sight, and Angela sensed the familiar presence at the edge of her consciousness.

'Well, Fairy?' she prodded mentally. 'What's going on here?'

'The Elementals and I... we're, um... we're going to suppress his grief.'

'You can DO that?' At least now she knew why the Fairy wanted a private audience for this conversation.

'For a while, anyway. He'll have to deal with it himself at a later date, but it'll keep him focused and functional for now. And he'll handle it better when he's no longer confused and under so much pressure.'

The Princess delivered the mental equivalent of a growl to her visitor. 'I still don't like the idea of you having the ability to mess with our emotions like that. How are we to know when else you've done that? What about when Jessica was killed in front of Hawk? Did you do it then, too?'

'No! I swear this is the only time! I admit that we thought about it, but Hawk handled that all himself. Well, you seemed to help him a lot too.' The Princess felt a little warm and fuzzy at that piece of information, but forced herself to keep her attention focused. 'However Duran's emotions are much more simple - he can't focus when he's that upset. We don't want him being distracted by his grief.'

'As much as I hate to agree with such a thing, it's probably necessary,' Angela granted reluctantly. 'We can't really afford him spacing out in the middle of a battle against Koren or the Dragon Emperor like he did with the Darkshine Knight.'

She had the mental impression of the Fairy crossing her arms. 'See? I just wanted to tell you so you wouldn't leap to conclusions and try to swat me AGAIN.'

'Hey, those conclusions I leapt to were perfectly accurate! I was well within my rights to swat you!'

'You shouldn't swat me no matter what! I'm the chosen emissary of the Goddess!'

'Fairy, one more thing,' Angela interrupted, before she could get distracted by the usual argument with the shiny gnat. '...Did you guys know? You know... about this?'

There was an uncomfortable pause at that. Finally, the tiny deity replied, 'We only suspected. Loki and King Richard had been blessed by some of the Elementals before they embarked on their journey - Wisp, Undine and Gnome I think it was - but their bond was comparatively weak to yours. They had at first believed him dead, but later discovered that the bond had actually been clouded by such malignant Mana that they couldn't speak with Duran's father anymore. By the Goddess's decree, we weren't allowed to speak of it...'

Angela sighed; unable to summon the indignant anger that she was certain she ought to be feeling. 'You know what? Whatever. If all of this helps Duran cope, that's fine. He'll be able to handle it better if he's given the chance to sort through it rationally in a more relaxed atmosphere. But don't you DARE let me catch you trying any of that stuff on me or Hawk!'

'Speaking of Hawk, maybe you should stop threatening me and look after him. You've left him struggling over there for quite a while now. He doesn't look very comfortable.'

'Shit! Hawk!' The Fairy buzzed out of her head at her mental shooing, wandering back over to Duran who had resumed staring at the prone suit of black armour with a blank expression on his face. Whatever the Elementals had done, he was obviously gaining control of his emotions again, and while that didn't sit quite well with her, she was profoundly glad that comforting duty had been officially relegated to the tiny deity instead of herself. Now she could finally attend to Hawk.

Ignoring her own injuries that were still crying out for attention, she limped over to the Rogue, not really feeling like asking Duran for any healing magic right then. It looked as though the thief's attempt to set his own leg had finally resulted in him passing out from the pain, so Angela, gritting her teeth, finished the process for him. She'd become plenty used to the sight of blood and guts and any other number of gross things, but for some reason broken bones still managed to make her squeamish. It wasn't even a bad break, for which was she thankful, because that time she'd seen bone poking out of the skin she'd almost fainted.

Right, now to find those damn healing potions. Easier said than done when dealing with the Rogue - he probably hid daggers in his socks, for crying out loud. The Princess tried not to blush like a pre-teen while checking Hawk's many pockets, curing her luck - if she wasn't in so much darn pain right then, she would have rather enjoyed the excuse to grope the attractive Navarrian.

Fortunately, after locating a small bag of coins that must have been left over from their expensive trip to Pedan, a bangle that she was almost sure had been hers at some point, likely before she sold off most of her jewellery way back in Astoria, Flammie's drum and Duran's armour polish, Angela finally came across a pouch containing five vials of that precious healing elixir. She eagerly uncorked the first, swallowing the cool liquid in one gulp and immediately feeling better for it, before tipping the second down Hawk's throat.

The mysterious concoction worked fast. It was only a minute or so later that the Rogue came to, sitting up and blinking groggily. "Ugh, what happened?"

"She broke your leg, that's what happened!" the Fairy shrieked. Duran had finally picked himself up and wandered over to the two of them, glowing parasite in tow.

"Gah, must have finally passed out," the Navarrian muttered to himself.

"Didn't you hear me? HER RECKLESS MAGIC NEARLY KILLED US ALL! Why won't anybody listen to me?"

"Hey, who do you think you're calling reckless?"

"Oh leave it, Fairy. Normally I would've been able to dodge. Really, Angela did a good job keeping a spell like that as contained as it was." Hawk massaged the back of his neck, stretching his shoulders and checking himself over for any wounds the healing elixir might've missed.

The tiny deity crossed her arms in a huff. "If she can't keep it MORE contained, then maybe she should have used a smaller spell!"

"I TRIED a smaller spell! It didn't even make him stumble!"

The Rogue waved a placating hand at them. "No harm done, right? Good as new!"

This time both the Princess and Fairy glared at the thief. "Show a little self-preservation, would you? I did break your leg! You're allowed to be angry!"

"Well, it's not like it's the first time or anything," the Fairy quipped.

"Hey, that wasn't my fault!" Angela protested.

"Of course not. It's NEVER your fault."

"You know, Fairy, technically this entire damn crazy rabite chase of a quest is your fault!"

There was something altogether too familiar and comforting about arguing with the shiny gnat these days. Something terribly normal, though nothing in the past few months could be considered even slightly normal. But out of the corner of her eye, Angela could see Duran's expression relaxing as he quickly became distracted from doubts and recriminations by the everyday routine. Which, she felt, was probably the tiny deity's plan all along.

She wasn't entirely certain whether to feel grateful for the Fairy's subterfuge or uneasy by it. After all, it led to the question of how manipulative their perpetual nuisance could be when she felt inspired enough.

"Are you both okay? Need any healing magic?" Duran interjected, before the fight could escalate.

Angela waved him off airily. "I think we're fine now. Those handy elixirs really are something." It was sort of wasteful using them while Duran still had plenty of magical endurance left in him, but she certainly hadn't felt like waiting around for the Elementals to calm him down and the Paladin to get his act together.

"In that case, we should consider what to do next," he suggested calmly, looking around the cavern as though it could provide him with an answer.

Hawk studied the Mana Knight carefully. "You okay Duran?" There wasn't any bitterness or jealousy in his voice towards the Paladin, just the usual friendly concern. Had she merely imagined that dark glance earlier?

The Forcenan gave the Rogue a weak smile. "I don't really know... I guess it's left me a bit numb... but I should be okay. It's just all... very confusing."

Amber eyes turned curiously to the Princess, who twirled her hand in an 'I'll tell you later' gesture, eyes flitting towards the Fairy in brief explanation. The thief nodded to show his understanding and stood, dusting himself off. "Fair enough. The Dragon Emperor's palace is right ahead, isn't it? Maybe we should take the chance to rest a little and recuperate before we head that deep into enemy territory. Once we're inside the Palace, it probably won't be safe to stop."

The Fairy wrung her hands at that suggestion. "Is it really wise to delay any longer?"

"Probably not, but we'll move faster if we take a break now. And I think we could all use one."

"I agree with Hawk," Angela declared. That battle with the Darkshine Knight had been over relatively quickly, but they'd still been crawling through Dragon's Hole for at least a day, perhaps more. "We don't have to stop for ages - just a few hours, so we can have a nap at least to regain some energy. That okay with you, Duran?" Even with the Elementals' and Fairy's emotional bandaid, she would still feel better if he had a few hours to sort himself out.

He nodded vaguely. "That seems fine."

"Okay then. Let's head back in there. It'll be, um... less windy," she said, indicating the cavern they'd entered previous to this one. Something about taking a nap with the Darkshine Knight's corpse right there just didn't sit right with her.

So with weary bodies - Angela's and Hawk's rather more weary than the knight's - they dragged themselves back to the previous cavern, and cleared it of some of the remaining bastardly territorial dragons to rest up for a few hours. The rest of the dragons seemed happy to leave them be so long as they didn't encroach any further into their own caverns, but they organised a watch just in case.

The Magus volunteered for first watch again out of habit, Hawk agreeing to take second. So that left her sitting in an eerily quiet cave minutes later, with nothing to do but stare at her two handsome comrades as they slept. Fortunately, this was a highly enjoyable task, so she wasn't worried about falling asleep where she sat.

Shifting slightly, she used the peace to once again sort through the day's tumultuous events in her head, once she was certain the Fairy was keeping watch over Duran and hadn't snuck into her head again when she was otherwise occupied - uneasy truce or not, she didn't trust the little gnat at all.

Another day - perhaps more - closer to the end of their journey, and she still hadn't made any real progress with Hawk. The only thing she was grateful for was the fact that both of her companions seemed willing to pretend that their round table of confessions hadn't occurred, which was helpful in removing some of the awkwardness in necessary interactions, but that was about it. She was becoming acutely aware of their potentially limited time together, and with the horrible stalemate her battle of seduction had arrived at, it was starting to look like she was NEVER going to get anywhere with the object of her desires.

Pausing as she ran a hand through her lavender hair, the Princess suddenly recalled the look in Hawk's eyes when she'd been hugging Duran after the battle.

That was when she had a Fabulous Idea.

By now she had firmly established that Hawk thought that she was just using him to get to Duran - which had been completely true at one point in time. Because of this, he'd turned down her genuine advances, and wouldn't believe her change of heart no matter how many times she tried to molest the bastard. But as poker-faced as the thief could be at times, he couldn't completely hide his emotions. He'd been jealous of Duran.

So the solution was simple. Now, she'd simply make Hawk jealous by flirting with Duran. Of course, there was now the small problem that Duran actually liked her, but then, when she first executed her 'Make Duran jealous' plan she had thought that Hawk had liked her, and that hadn't stopped her back then. And the plan had worked, hadn't it? Just because it had backfired last time, didn't mean that the plan didn't have merit. How much longer would the thief be able to ignore his own feelings?

Smugly crossing her arms, she regarded the peacefully sleeping Rogue with a smirk. He was going to resist the Princess of Altena? She'd like to see him try.

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Please review. 


	53. Revenge is a Dish Best Served With Fire

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One.

Author's note: I'm not even going to apologise for the horrible updating this time, because it occurred to me that if I were REALLY sorry, I would find some way to fix it. Even after saying that, this chapter has actually been finished for a few weeks, and I just forgot to post it, even while merrily working on the next one. CRAZY, huh? I'm officially losing my mind.

I've also been working on my website (the link is in my lovely out-of-date profile) which has been eating up writing time, but rest assured that until it is finished, this fic is top priority! So… close… to the end…!

As always, thanks to the awesome folks who keep reviewing despite my lousy updating practices. All of you are champions, and make the struggle through the end of a dying fic worthwhile.

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**Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 53 – Revenge is a Dish Best Served With Lots of Fire

By Sinnatious

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'Morning' came far too soon for any of their tastes, but none of the weary trio complained as they chewed on the last of their rations and checked over their weapons and armour for damage from their fight with the Darkshine Knight. Angela, determined to not think about the whole Dragon Emperor situation, focused most of her attention on finding appropriate moments to put her new plan into action. She had a deadline, now, and if she couldn't force Hawk to admit his own feelings before they parted ways, she may as well have just stayed back in Altena and let the world end. 

Okay, she recognised that she was getting melodramatic, but the past couple of months had been tough on her. She thought she was entitled to the sentiment.

The trick, she gauged as they stood by unspoken agreement to head out of the cavern, was to try to keep it subtle. Hawk was a far sight more observant than Duran was, so hopefully she wouldn't have to use completely in-your-face flirting techniques to get his attention.

They left Dragon's Hole to emerge onto a windy mountaintop. She thought it might have been early afternoon, but the storm clouds that had gathered overhead made it impossible to tell. That was when they had their first glimpse of the Dragon Emperor's Palace.

Up close, it was a monstrous structure - nowhere near as tall as the Moonlight Tower or as expansive as the Beast Kingdom's Castle, but it was easily twice the size of Rolante. Wrought iron decorated the archways made of heavy grey stone that seemed to almost melt into the rich maroon rock that Dragon's Hole had been carved from. It was difficult to tell from where they were standing, but Angela thought that she could see blood red stained glass windows higher up. She idly hoped that they weren't stained with actual blood.

"Seems like a pretty big place just for one guy, doesn't it?" Hawk commented airily.

"The Wizard of the Red Lotus might be there too," Duran pointed out. "And there's a whole lot of dragons that sort of look like they're standing guard at the entrance."

"Let's not keep them waiting, then," Angela said with a smirk, raising her staff. "THUNDERSTORM!"

Thick bolts of lightning arced down from the sky with explosive impact, thunder clapping and shaking the ground on which they stood. The Magus's spell wiped out half of the dragons in one blow. The dust had barely cleared before Hawk let loose a hail of silver darts and Duran stepped in with his sword, cleaning up the rest.

"It's amazing what a couple of hours sleep can do, isn't it?" The Princess cheerfully slapped a hand on the Paladin's shoulder, letting it linger there for just a few seconds too long to be considered entirely innocent. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Rogue pointedly look away, and resisted the urge to smirk. Yes, Hawk was definitely paying attention.

They moved forward into the Dragon Emperor's Palace, and were surprised to discover that despite the large collection of dragons that had been sitting just outside, the inside was strangely deserted. In fact, a thick layer of dust seemed to cover everything, as though no living thing had walked through its halls for years.

That said, it was an obviously opulent palace - even more so that Altena's. Hawk's amber eyes were practically shining as they roamed over the architecture, and even the stoic Forcenan was looking suitably impressed. If the place had been better kept, every surface would have shone and sparkled with precious metals and gems. The furnishings all looked like finely crafted antiques that would have stood out even in an aristocrat's home, and the livery was printed on silks that even the Queen of Reason would have swooned over. This Dragon Emperor was RICH.

The Navarrian skipped ahead several steps, announcing, "I'm definitely looting this place when we are done."

"I don't think anyone will stop you," Angela replied dryly, "But isn't it a little odd how deserted it is? If not dragons, I would have thought that this place would at least be crawling with monsters or traps."

"Hmm, true, I can't sense a speck of life in here. There's a lot of magic hanging around up there, though - big murky cloud of it, can't quite make it out," Hawk observed, waving his hands vaguely upwards.

At that prompt, the Princess focused her considerably stronger magic senses on reading the Mana around them. It was true that the Mana in this area was rather more unstable than most places they'd been, but despite that she couldn't sense any individual pockets of magical power that she normally could when she was looking for it. She could see what Hawk meant - it felt like there was a big dark hole of malignant magic somewhere in the Palace, but pinpointing it felt rather like trying to find a black box in a dimly lit room. Amidst that great wash of unstable Mana, though, Angela could sense an eerily familiar presence mixed in with it.

"Koren!" she blurted, identifying the magical signature. "Koren IS here! Come on, Duran, we have some revenge to get!" She grabbed the Paladin's hand and started to pull him along in the vague direction she thought she had sensed his presence. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Hawk frown slightly as she dragged the eager Forcenan along. She kept it up for another minute or so before slowing her pace down and releasing his hand.

They wandered up several flights of stairs and through several wings of the castle, half checking for somewhere the Dragon Emperor might be and half looking for Koren. Angela had the vague impression that Koren was nearby, but her magical senses were so muddied in the Palace that she couldn't pinpoint him, so they were being forced to search using the old fashioned method. Hopefully it worked both ways and Koren wouldn't be able to sense their own approach at least. As they wandered the deserted halls of the opulent palace, they made small talk, as though to dispel the eerie silence broken only by the occasional distant rumble of thunder. And by 'small talk', it meant that the Altenan princess flirted with the Forcenan knight at every available opportunity.

"Duran, you better be sure to leave some of Koren for me, okay?" she cajoled with a wink.

"Of course, Angela," he replied with a smile. "To be honest, by now I'm more interested in fighting the Dragon Emperor than the Wizard of the Red Lotus. But I am looking forward to showing him that I'm not the pushover I once was."

"Indeed," the Magus observed, reaching out and squeezing the Paladin's muscled right arm playfully. "You've become a lot stronger - but what else do you expect of the Mana Knight?"

Duran blushed slightly at that, and modestly replied, "You've become a great deal stronger also, Angela. I'm sure that Koren is going to be surprised by that too."

She placed a hand on her hip and leant over, wagging a finger at him. "Don't try to be modest, Duran. You've worked really hard, and it shows." The effect was slightly lost with her Ancient Robe half covering her, but that pose still showed plenty of cleavage, and she caught the Paladin's eyes wandering.

"Hey guys, hurry it up!" Hawk called from up ahead, already making his way into the next room.

"Oh, sorry Hawk!" Duran replied, tearing his eyes away from her and hurrying to catch up. Angela followed at a more sedate pace with a grin. Before she'd taken more than a couple of steps, though, a small glowing orb zoomed towards her from the Paladin's retreating back.

"Fairy," she greeted congenially as the tiny deity rose to hover in front of her face.

"What are you doing?" the Fairy hissed. "Don't tell me you've suddenly changed your mind AGAIN?!"

Angela haughtily quirked a single lavender eyebrow at the tiny deity. "Contrary to what you may believe, I am not quite so fickle."

"Then why are... you... goddess have mercy!" Seems the shiny insect had caught on. It was a lot faster this time, but given that the Fairy WAS completely aware of her feelings on the subject, the quick arrival at the correct conclusion wasn't quite as spectacular as it appeared.

"NOW who's using the Goddess's name in vain?"

"Angela! I can't believe that you... you... completely ignoring how incredibly selfish and dirty that tactic is, have some consideration for Duran's feelings! He still really likes you, you know!"

"Of course I know," she replied, not even batting an eyelid.

"Then how can you do this to him! Especially after everything he's gone through recently... are you really that insensitive?!"

"I think we covered this topic ages ago and came to the conclusion that I am. Besides, it's not like he'll even notice. I did way more than this back when we first met and he didn't even blink."

The Fairy was flapping about in an agitated fashion, zipping from side to side and up and down in a way that would give the Princess a headache if it kept up. Her glow was dimming and brightening in an irritatingly erratic pattern too. "You... you're despicable! I can't believe... He might not have noticed then, but now-"

Growing impatient, the Princess let out a growl, her hand shooting out and catching the Fairy in a gentle but firm grip with a speed and accuracy that would make even Hawk pay attention. "Eeep!" Clearly, despite the numerous threats over the past couple of months, the tiny deity hadn't ever thought that the Magus would ever actually succeed in catching her.

Bringing the squirming guardian up close to her face, and trying to ignore the fact that it felt rather like she had caught a moth in her hand, the Princess of Altena bit out her words with a vitriol normally reserved for their enemies. "Listen up, Fairy. I am a Magus who has fallen in love with a man who, despite being apparently quite well educated in the subject, is insistent on not getting the message. This man also happens to be a flighty Rogue who tends to disappear and reappear without warning, and so there may only be days, if not HOURS left in which his company is guaranteed. And let's also not forget that there's been quite a lot of stress and pressure going around lately, and I am one very frustrated Princess with far too much unresolved sexual tension pent up to be considered completely stable. So help me if I've since stopped caring about hurt feelings... I WANT THIS TO BE RESOLVED. In the meantime, I'm going to trust that yours and the Elementals' emotional band-aid that you've slapped on Duran is going to hold up, and that no interfering, plan-ruining, oh-so-helpful tiny deities stick their nose where it doesn't belong and mess things up AGAIN."

"Please don't squish me," the Fairy squeaked.

Sighing, Angela released the glowing parasite, watching her flit a safe distance away, clearly ruffled by her near-brush with death. It was about time their self-appointed 'guardian' knew what it felt like, anyway. Without another word, she strode forward, intent on catching up to her two companions who had already disappeared into the next room, the Fairy nervously hovering nearby, though the glorified gnat was making sure to keep at least an arm's length distance between them.

As she entered the next room - a giant ballroom, by the looks of it, complete with an unreasonably high ceiling and marble floor - she was surprised to see Duran and Hawk standing still just a few steps away. They were both in battle-ready stances; the Paladin with his hand on the hilt of his sword, and Hawk's arms deceptively hanging loosely by his side. Alarmed, she followed the direction of their gazes, and momentarily froze when the flash of red caught her eyes.

Standing calmly in the centre of the giant chamber with their back to them was an altogether too-familiar blonde-haired, red-caped man. Next to her, the Fairy let out an 'Eeep!' and vanished into her head, being the closest. She didn't pay any notice.

"Koren." Angela hissed the name as though it were a curse.

The wizard turned at the sound of his name, flinging out the edges of his cape as he did so, strangely reminding the trio of the now long-dead Jagan.

"Ah, Altenan's spoilt brat has returned, with the Mana Knight and street scum in tow. What a motley-looking crew you make. I'm terribly surprised you got past Loki." He regarded them with unnaturally pale blue eyes.

Duran, she noted, didn't even bother to make his customary request that their opponent stand aside. She thought that maybe he'd finally caught on that they were NEVER smart enough to leave when politely asked, but it was more likely that he still wanted to prove his strength to the wizard.

"Don't you even DARE talk about my father!" Duran announced, drawing his sword and placing his palm against the blade. A moment later, then blade shone with an unearthly glow. Saint Sabre already? They hadn't even finished all the pre-battle niceties yet.

With a war cry, the Paladin charged at the wizard, sword held high. Angela smirked when she saw the blonde draw his own sword. Didn't the fool know with Saint Sabre applied that Duran's sword would cut through his own as though it were butter? It looked like it was going to be a short battle after all.

The ringing clang of meeting swords proved her wrong. The Magus blinked. Saint Sabre was.…. gone?

The lustre had vanished from Duran's sword, and from the shocked expression on the Paladin's face, she quickly concluded what had happened. Dispel... the same magic Koren had used to take the Mana Sword from them.

"Holy Ball," Koren calmly intoned, blasting the surprised knight backwards.

Hawk flipped out his two wavy daggers. "I suppose we'd better get going, Angela?"

She shrugged, brandishing her Dragon Rod with a malicious grin. "It would've been boring if Duran took him out with the first blow anyway."

Hawk let loose with one of his silver darts that Koren sidestepped at the last moment, Angela following it up a moment later with a fire ball that singed the edges of his robe. Then he was stepping backwards quickly, barely keeping Hawk's flurrying daggers at bay with his sword, before retaliating with a spray of diamond missiles that forced the thief to back off. Duran found his feet again and returned to the fray, exchanging a few blows with the wizard before he was forced back by a barrage of fireballs. Half a breath later, Koren was directing a Saint Beam at Hawk, followed up an Evil Gate that the Rogue barely scrambled out of.

Feeling a little left out, the Magus lobbed off a few fireballs of her own, but they were intercepted by an Ice Smash, and wound up just producing steam. The Scarlet Mage directed a quick Air Blast at Duran to keep him off balance before returning his attention to flinging an array of spells after Hawk which the thief narrowly dodged one after another, his Silverwolf Pelt easily protecting him from one stray fire ball that managed to land a glancing blow, though Angela suspected that tips of his long thin ponytail probably got singed.

They continued like this for some time, enough so that Angela was left wondering how much magical endurance Koren had, since he hadn't even paused in his onslaught of magic yet, using his sword only to defend against Duran and Hawk's occasional blows. She liked to think that they were wearing him down, but in truth the only damage they'd really done so far was add some tears to his distinctive red cloak, whereas both of her companions were starting to get a little puffed from the constant evasion, and the Paladin had gathered a few burns and bruises that were starting to slow his movement.

She was beginning to notice that Koren seemed to have more of an issue with Hawk than anyone else. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, seeing as the desert rat had no personal vendetta against the Scarlet Wizard, unlike herself and Duran who had plenty of bottled up resentment for the blonde man. She could sort of understand him wanting to take care of Hawk instead of Duran first, even with the Mana Knight thing, but it wasn't terribly smart to ignore her, or for that matter ANY magic user for too long - they had a tendency to cook up really big spells when you weren't looking.

Which was what she was doing now. "Hawk, Duran, clear!" she warned.

At her signal, both of her companions leapt backwards from their onslaught against the Scarlet Mage. Angela brandished her Dragon Rod, dark magic crackling in the air around her as she unleashed Shade's power. "DARK FORCE!"

Spears of dark magic converged en-masse on her foe, blocking him from their sight. Angela waited, already preparing a follow-up Holy Ball, but was thrown off balance by an Air Blast. Cursing, she turned back to see a somewhat-battered Koren return his attention to throwing volley after volley of fire balls and diamond missiles at the Rogue, pausing only to stave off Duran's sweeping attacks with his sword. She was gratified that she'd done at least some damage, but figured that the scarlet robe he was so fond of must have had some pretty heavy-duty protection spells woven into it after all if he was still in one piece after that.

Still, even after she fired off that Dark Force he had the nerve to ignore her and continue wasting magic spells on Hawk? What, had the Rogue stolen his favourite hairbrush or something? The Princess knew first hand that it was stupid to earnestly attack the Navarrian with anything but area magic - he was so damn fast, and not to mention he had that irritating counter magic for any of the weaker spells...

Actually, she might have been on to something there. She chuckled evilly to herself. Was it possible that the cold, calculating, removed Wizard of the Red Lotus was so childish as to be holding a grudge from that time Hawk had stolen the Fairy out of his very hands, and then proceeded to dodge Koren's fireball as though it had been cast by an amateur?

Oh, this was going to be EASY.

Angela started gathering her power for another large spell. "Let's see how you like this one, then... THUNDERSTORM!"

She shouted the spell mostly for Hawk and Duran's benefit, who immediately retreated a safe distance. Moments later, thick arcs of lightning struck in the Red Wizard's vicinity, temporarily blinding her and adding black scorch marks to the already torn up ground at their opponents feet. Blinking briefly to get her eyesight back, Angela caught sight of an extremely annoyed Koren, blonde hair poofed up, gathering his magic.

"Explode!" he snarled, stretching out his hand.

A little startled by the sudden shift in attention, Angela leapt backwards hurriedly to try and at least avoid the brunt of the spell. As though in slow motion, she could see the balls of fire multiply and explode in front of her eyes, shooting out spurts of lava and intense streams of flame that turned the ground in front of her molten.

Then all of a sudden, the world was tilting strangely.

It was a careless mistake. After all, after so many battles, and TWO class changes at that, Princess Angela of Altena DID NOT do something as incredibly idiotic as trip over her own feet in a battle.

She landed on the ground with a hard thud, eyes widening at the sight of the torrent of fire that was descending upon her. There was no way that her Ancient Robe could protect her from THAT.

Reflexively, she shut her eyes, preparing for the searing heat and accompanying pain. After spending months envisioning her battle with Koren... she was going to die because she tripped over her own shoes. How utterly humiliating.

In some tiny corner in the back of her mind, she was mildly surprised that the Fairy wasn't shrieking inside her skull in panic as she frequently did whenever they came into harms' way in a battle. Or had the tiny deity escaped when she hadn't noticed?

That was when a new sound caught her attention, cutting through the roar of flames about to hit her with a shrill whine. Surprised, the Magus opened her eyes just in time to witness the fire dissolve into motes of light as it approached, and those sparkling embers in turn being sucked towards the top of her head. At the same time, she felt her magic replenish, almost as though she had eaten one of those gross magic herbs.

In such a fashion, the entire spell dissolved in front of her eyes. It was hard to tell who was the more confused - herself, or Koren, who moments before had been smirking vindictively, certain of victory.

Sensing her confusion, an exasperated Fairy explained from within her skull, 'Have you forgotten about that fancy ornament you wear on your head already?! Fire magic's useless against you when you're wearing that!'

Tentatively, the Princess raised a hand to the hairpin she'd bought in Pedan - it was warm to the touch, and hummed strangely underneath her fingers. It was true that she'd forgotten about it - she'd been so certain she was done for.

'Damn,' she thought to herself. 'All of these near death experiences are about to turn me into the religious type.'

'You?' the Fairy snorted. 'Never.'

Standing and brushing herself off, Angela attempted to calm her still raging nerves by laughing. "Ha ha! Surprised Koren?" Never mind that she was just as surprised as he was - such powerful magical artefacts were rare, after all. When she'd originally bought it, she'd thought that the damn hairpin would ward her against fireballs, not completely suck in one of the highest-level fire spells around.

As if in disbelief, Koren let loose another monumental volley of half a dozen fireballs in her direction, simultaneously sending off two Air Blasts to keep her two allies at bay.

"Scarlet Mage. Wizard of the Red Lotus. The Queen of Altena's right hand man. General of the Army. So many names, Koren, but in the end, you're nothing more than a HACK! You didn't have to sweat and bleed and fight for every scrap of magic you have! And that's why your spells will NEVER beat mine!" she crowed, effortlessly dousing his storm of fireballs with a small Megasplash, just to prove she could.

NOW he was paying attention.

Hawk and Duran forgotten, Koren started flinging spell after spell at her, Angela either dodging each one nimbly or countering it with her own spells. Then she started mixing things up, adding an ice smash to her diamond missiles so that even if her enemy were to intercept the spell with a fireball, the diamond missiles coming behind the hail of ice would still make it through. She dispersed her own fireballs, controlling each one individually as though it were merely a finger on her hand, so that Koren was being attacked on all sides. Angela stepped forward slowly as her own barrage of magic pushed the increasingly battered and harried wizard back. Every time he looked like he was going to recoup, Hawk would throw one of his pumpkin bombs that way, keeping the wizard off balance, but otherwise her two comrades kept a safe distance as the Magus let loose.

"Holy Ball. Fire Ball. Thunderstorm. Air Blast. Dark Force," she calmly chanted, one after the other. If she kept it up forever, her magic would drain, but for now she was running on pure adrenaline, the thrill of finally facing her nemesis - the man for whom she had reserved her most intense hatred for such a long time. Her magic seemed to hum beneath her fingertips in excitement, heating up and making it feel as though merely snapping her fingers would cause them to spark.

After the dust from her latest barrage of spells cleared, she caught sight of a bleeding and battered Koren falling to one knee, trying to catch his breath. She stopped moving forward, pausing to look down on his half-fallen figure.

"This is almost disappointing, Koren. To think I chased after you for so long, and this was the extent of your abilities. You might have some big spells, but you have no idea how to use them! You were just a puppet of the Dragon Emperor after all. I WAS going to make you suffer, but I think I'll just end it here and now."

She HAD fantasised about torturing Koren and making him suffer for months now. But Carlie wasn't around, and after that, the Princess knew that there couldn't possibly be anything crueler to the self-named Wizard of the Red Lotus than the declaration that he was not even considered to be a worthy threat anymore.

Angela grasped her Dragon Rod with both hands, holding it out horizontally in front of her and pointing it at the wide eyed wizard, who even now she could feel was desperately trying to gather magic for an impossibly large spell - no doubt some monumental last ditch effort that would use up whatever magical stamina he had remaining.

She'd never let him fire it off, though. Focusing her magic, the tip of the Princess's weapon began to glow white-hot.

It was going to be a sweet victory. She hadn't simply defeated Koren in battle - she had crushed him completely. And it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person.

"Goodbye, Koren," she murmured.

She gathered her magic until she thought she wouldn't be able to control it anymore, then released it one focused beam. A flare of white fire burst forth from her weapon. Koren only had time to open his mouth in surprise before he was consumed by the blast of incredibly powerful magic.

The spell scorched the ground, ripping up the earth in its wake. And it had hit the Wizard of the Red Lotus at almost point-blank range. Coolly, Angela stepped back, praying to the Goddess that it had worked - she certainly didn't have enough magic left for more than a few Holy Balls now.

Splayed out on the floor was a burnt, tattered red cape... and what was left of Koren. It was a pretty gruesome sight, in all honesty, one that would have normally had the Princess gagging. He was definitely dead, of that there was no question.

Just like that, it was suddenly over. Silence fell over the wrecked ballroom once more.

Angela allowed herself a moment to catch her breath, quickly swallowing a magic herb to at least somewhat restore her heavily drained magic before allowing herself to celebrate. "How do you like that? Ha!"

"That was pretty cool, Angela, what's it called?" the Paladin asked admiringly.

"Um, I don't... I actually just invented that spell just then," she admitted.

"Hmm, for a brand new spell it sure fried him good," Hawk said, poking Koren's charred, prone form, then pulling his finger away. "Ouch, hot!"

"Maybe you could call it 'Hot Shot'?" Duran suggested.

Plan to make Hawk jealous aside, there was no way the Princess was going to subject herself to the Forcenan's simple naming conventions again. She'd had to live with that horribly named 'Star Attack' for months! "That's a dumb name!" she snapped.

"Really? I think it's pretty appropriate," Hawk commented, this time toeing their fallen foe with the tip of his shoe.

"Hot Shot it is!" she declared.

"He was pretty tough, but you completely overwhelmed him," Duran observed, a little bit of regret in his voice. She spared a moment to feel a little sorry for the Paladin - after all that, he really didn't get the opportunity to best Koren in any way.

"You know, Angie, you're pretty scary sometimes," the thief mused, staring at the path her spell had scoured into the ground.

"Only sometimes?" the Fairy mumbled under her breath, emerging from her head at last.

"I HEARD THAT, BUG!"

"It still seems like it was too easy," the Forcenan commented, staring nervously at their fallen foe, as though expecting him to suddenly resurrect himself. "I really thought he was about to fire off some big spell that would have messed up everything at the end. It's a good thing he didn't get the chance."

Hawk shrugged then started making his to the other end of the room. "How do we really expect to take on the Dragon Emperor if the three of us had to struggle with his underling?"

That piece of logic seemed to sate the knight, who turned and walked away also. The trio rather calmly made the way out of the room, already pushing Koren - once such an untouchable foe - to the back of their minds where he would eventually be forgotten. The Princess paused as her companions walked ahead, though, staring back at the fallen form of their enemy. Smirking, she took a brief bow. "In all fairness, Koren, I should really thank you. If you hadn't convinced my mother to try to kill me, or had me exiled, or just generally messed up my life so badly for so long, I might never have become this strong. And even more importantly," her voice dropped to a conspiring whisper, "I might never have met the man I love. And you probably would have survived, too. Funny how things work out, huh?" Giggling, she skipped after her comrades. She really didn't know why people were always lecturing on how revenge was wrong and ultimately self-defeating - it felt GREAT! So long as the object of that revenge was a cruel and callous individual bent on the world's destruction, she figured that no harm would be done.

"Where to now?" Duran asked when she caught up.

Hawk looked towards the ceiling and then glanced briefly in her direction. "Can you feel it too, Angela?"

The Magus nodded distractedly, raising her gaze heavenward. Now that Koren's magical aura had vanished, there was just one outstanding source of magic left, and it felt much clearer than before. It was twisted and evil - worse than even that mutated Mana of the God-Beasts. It was familiar too - after a moment she was able to peg it as the same sort of energy she'd felt surrounding the Darkshine Knight.

No question, the Dragon Emperor was on the roof.

"We'd better get going, then," the Rogue suggested, already making his way to the stairs. The Princess groaned when they reached the next floor, only to be confronted by more stairs. Why did the evil bastards always have to be waiting at the top?

They mounted staircase after staircase in the deserted castle in a reverent silence. Even the Elementals felt unnaturally still in the back of Angela's consciousness and though the Fairy had temporarily left the sanctuary of the Mana Knight's head to rest on his shoulder, she didn't say anything either. Every now and again they passed a suit of armour or an idle sword that they expected to come to life and attack them, but they remained motionless. It was somehow even creepier than if the place had been crawling with dragons and monsters from the Underworld.

So when they came across the statue on the next floor, she shouldn't have been surprised.

The trio paused, and stared. It was a golden Mana Goddess statue, the standard type that was nearly everywhere - just about every town or temple they'd ever been to had one. It was common to find cheaper versions made of grey stone or granite littering well-travelled paths in the countryside also, so that the devout could have a place to pray to the Goddess.

Only this one was missing its head.

Angela wasn't sure why exactly she was so disturbed by it. After all, she wasn't really the religious type like Riesz or Carlie who regularly offered thanks to the Goddess in such a ritualistic fashion. To her, the statues really served as nothing more than ornaments and as such she rarely even noticed when they passed one, though after meeting the Goddess in person she found herself looking out for them a little more often, finding their presence strangely reassuring. However, this... this didn't sit right with her at all. It seemed like a horrible omen. After all, it was quite clear that the head had been very carefully and deliberately severed off. Did the Dragon Emperor hate the Mana Goddess or something? And if that were the case, why would he then remove the head of a statue but still leave the rest of it there?

"Such utter blasphemy," the Fairy whispered, obviously too shocked by the sight to even embark on her usual rant about the lack of proper respect for the Mana Goddess.

The trio remained silent, unsettled by the sight but unable to pinpoint exactly why. Other than the fact that it was creepy, of course... maybe it felt a little more sickening after having met the Goddess personally. She had seemed like such a kind and benevolent deity... the very idea that anyone could harbour such hate...

The Dragon Emperor truly was an agent of the Underworld. He was dangerous. He should have been killed fifteen years ago, but because he hadn't been... was the Dragon Emperor the cause of Mana's recent instability, or merely an entity who had taken advantage of it? Was he the instigator or an opportunist?

Both possibilities were frightening. But Angela focused her resolve, stepping resolutely past the decapitated statue and making her way up the next set of stairs. They were close. A moment later, the fall of footsteps assured her that Duran and Hawk were following.

Another two flights of stairs later they found themselves emerging onto the rooftop. Dark clouds swirled chaotically overhead as if they were a direct manifestation of the unstable, foul magic that seemed to permeate the atmosphere, making the Magus force down the urge to retch. At the far end of the roof a lone figure stood, unaffected by the high-altitude winds that buffeted the castle.

He turned as they cautiously approached, and Angela found her breath taken away. The Dragon Emperor – for there was no mistake that this was their sought-after foe - was an incredibly handsome individual, with pale blonde hair and fine features half hidden underneath a large, ornate dragon-head-like helmet that would more appropriately be called a crown. His countenance reminded her strangely of Koren, though the wizard of the Red Lotus never had such broad shoulders and regal poise.

As handsome as he was, though, his pale blue eyes were cruel and hid the hint of insanity at their depths. His gaze chilled her to the bone, and irrational fear spiked through the Princess as those cold eyes crept over her. This man... she felt power rolling over this individual, and the nervousness of the Elementals in the back of her consciousness was doing nothing to bolster her suddenly shaking confidence.

"So the Mana Knight and his lackeys have arrived after all. You children turned out to be more amazing that I thought... but no matter. You are of no threat to me." He turned away again, and it was then that they realised the Mana Sword was resting in front of him.

"Return to the Mana Sword to us," Duran demanded firmly, stepping forward. Once again, they were reminded that the Paladin was courageous almost to a fault.

The Dragon Emperor turned back to them, sword now in hand. "Why would I do such thing? Right when my plan is so close to completion?"

Angela's mouth felt dry, but she managed to work the question from her lips anyway. "What do you plan to do with the Sword? What exactly are your intentions?"

He turned that heavy gaze on her again, and the Princess had to call on her memory of her defeat of Koren to buoy her confidence and prevent her knees from quaking.

"What are my intentions? You mean you haven't figured it out yet? I thought it obvious. I'm going to take this Mana Sword, and use it to destroy the Mana Goddess."

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Please review. 


	54. The Art of Deathbed Confessions

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. Also, cliff-hanger. This chapter has one. You have been warned.

Author's note: Mwa ha ha! That was almost a reasonable space of time between updates! Of course, that's mostly because this chapter's a fair bit shorter than the usual seven thousand word efforts. Children of Mana probably had something to do with it too, making me all nostalgic for SD3. I was disappointed – still hanging out for Dawn of Mana next year (or this year if you can read Japanese fluently). So yes. End is near. Maybe only one - two if I get wordy - chapters left. We have PROGRESS! This is the part of the fic where I wrap everything up in an impossibly short period of time. Enjoy.

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**  
Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 54 – The Art of Deathbed Confessions

By Sinnatious

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The Dragon Emperor turned his face skyward, as though staring at something they couldn't see. "And then, once the Mana Goddess is dead, I will rule the world." 

The trio of weary warriors didn't quite know what to say to that.

He wanted to KILL the Mana Goddess? They rather had the idea that he wanted to rule the world, and quite frankly, Angela could deal with that. Every villain they'd come across yet had designs on ruling the world, and it was a perfectly understandable and rational goal, even if a ridiculously lofty one. Who DIDN'T want to rule the world, really? But to KILL the Mana Goddess?

Was such a thing even possible?

As though answering their unspoken question, the Dragon Emperor continued, "I should really thank you children - I might never have been able to if you hadn't brought the Mana Sword from the Holyland. Since my loyal servant Koren retrieved it from you, I've been gathering my energy for this day, and now I'm finally ready. The Goddess's hours are numbered."

"As if we'll let you!" Duran yelled, stepping forward and drawing his sword. His words were brash, but his eyes betrayed his panic.

The Dragon Emperor regarded them briefly with cool eyes. "You are welcome to try and stop me."

Then he vanished.

Angela blinked a couple of times, hoping it was just an optical illusion she could chase away. But the Dragon Emperor really had just disappeared right in front of them. He'd cast a teleportation spell without even having to murmur an incantation? Even Koren had to spend a few seconds concentrating.

The Fairy shimmered into existence in front of them, in near hysterics. "He's going to the Mana Holyland! We have to stop him!"

"Can he really kill the Goddess?" Hawk asked, "I mean, she's a freaking Goddess!"

"With the Mana Sword, anything is possible! We can't waste time! Call Flammie! Call Flammie now!" The Fairy buzzed about in an increasingly agitated fashion. Angela, in contrast, felt herself growing strangely numb. She stood there dumbly as Hawk called Flammie, and the Fairy paused briefly in front of her before disappearing into her head.

The white dragon swept down from the stormy sky and landed with a bray moments later, Hawk leaping onto her back, followed by Duran. The Paladin looked back at her, concerned. "Hurry, Angela!"

Mechanically, the Princess mounted the dragon, making certain to cling onto Duran a little closer than purely necessary, some distant part of her mind rather put out that Hawk was riding up front - even if it made sense, considering that they required the utmost of haste and Flammie responded best to the Navarrian out of all of them. Then she spent another moment wondering why exactly she was trying to make Hawk jealous when the world was about to end.

'You really need to sort out your priorities, Angela,' the Fairy admonished from within, echoing her own thoughts. 'Angela? .…..Angela, are you crying?'

The Princess tried to blink away her tears as the white dragon beat her powerful wings and took off into the sky at breakneck speed, ripping the droplets of water from her face. Her hands clenched Duran's armour a little tighter. She was so stupid. What made her think that the Rogue would even notice her in a situation like this? Why was she still bothering? They were going to catch up with the Dragon Emperor and either kill him, or die trying. Assuming that they were successful, she'd run out of time - Hawk would disappear afterwards, she just knew. He was that sort of person. He'd vanish into the night without a warning. He'd already left her behind at Astoria once. It wasn't hard to believe that he'd do it again.

'Angela? Angela! Focus! You're going to have to fight the Dragon Emperor! You need to keep your attention on the battle ahead, or you'll die! Seriously, Angela! Stay with me here!'

She'd screwed up every step of the way. She'd taken too long to realise her true feelings, and her own selfish actions had messed things up so badly that she'd estranged the one man she'd ever really wanted. And now it was going to be too late.

'Angela!'

'It's okay, you know,' Angela heard in the back of her consciousness. It took her a moment to recognise the cool voice that wrapped around her mind like a comforting cloak of darkness. Shade. The Elemental of Darkness so rarely spoke directly to her that she'd almost forgotten what he sounded like. 'You'll still get a chance afterwards. He will not vanish immediately as you fear.'

'If I couldn't convince him over the course of a month, how am I going to do it in a matter of hours?' she replied morosely, even as they tore through the clouds.

'You will speak plainly to him. As you did before. Again and again if necessary. You will talk until he has to listen.'

The Princess could feel her tumultuous heart calm at the reassuring words and her steely resolve return. Shade made sense - she was just panicking, she reasoned, because she was scared of facing the Dragon Emperor, and pinning her fear on her romantic troubles was a much safer avenue of thought. True, she was worried about what would happen afterward, but after all they'd been through together she knew that even the flighty Hawk wouldn't vanish without at least some form of goodbye.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the Gate to the Mana Holyland approaching; a giant glowing tear high in the sky. Things started to slide back into perspective. She was Princess Angela of Altena, a fully-fledged Magus and a damn attractive woman, if she did say so herself. She'd defeated the Wizard of the Red Lotus, withstood the tiny terror that was the High Priest's adopted granddaughter Carlie, helped save Forcena and Rolante from invasive forces and defeated eight God-Beasts. This was a battle she wouldn't lose. She was discouraged, certainly, but she was too damn stubborn to let Hawk get away from her without admitting his true feelings first. Besides, their battle was far from over and if she let herself get distracted by this, they'd be facing the same disaster as the clash with the God-Beast of Darkness all over again. She had to focus on the problem at hand. There was no point in winning Hawk's heart if she was going to die from inattentiveness in a crucial encounter.

As her thoughts centred and her turbulent emotions soothed, though, suspicion grew at the edges of the Princess's mind. 'You Elementals... you're not suppressing my feelings like you did to Duran, are you? You're not forcibly keeping me calm?'

'Of course not, child,' Shade assured her. 'You are a Magus, one of my few precious children who have walked the dark path and not lost your way. Your emotions are your strength - to shield you from them would only make you weaker.'

There was a rush of air as they passed through the Gate to the Mana Holyland - Flammie had flown so fast that it was a miracle they'd been able to cling on - and Shade's presence receded into the background of her consciousness once more.

After a moment of silence, a concerned Fairy asked, 'You okay, Angela?'

'I'm fine,' she retorted. 'Just spaced out for a minute or so, is all. Guess that the battle with Koren took more out of me than I thought. Messed with my thinking processes. Small attack of nerves. I'm good now.'

'Can we rely on you?'

'Of course you can rely on me! I've held it together against God-Beasts, even BEFORE I became a Magus! I can handle this! And shouldn't you be with Duran right now? I think your precious Mana Knight needs your company more than I do at the moment!' Not that she needed the Fairy's company in any form, but the gnat was still working under some misconception that hanging out in the consciousness of distressed individuals helped.

'I'll head back over to him once we land. But I wanted to talk to you after your battle with Koren, and make sure you were okay.'

'Nosy parasite,' she sniped, out of habit by now more than anything.

'Spoilt brat.'

'Bothersome insect.'

'Immoral harlot.'

'Hey, that's WAY too-'

Angela's protest was cut short as the Mana Holyland came into view. As always, the floating isle in the clouds was positively breath taking, but something seemed terribly... off, about the place. Even as Flammie veered towards the clearing to set them down, she couldn't quite figure out what was bothering her.

It wasn't until they were on ground level and the white dragon was flying away that she realised.

The Holyland... looked like it was dying?

The place had been looking a little sickly when they'd last come, but nowhere this bad. There were more patches of brown grass than green and leaves falling at a steady rate from the trees. Flowers were wilting right before their very eyes. The crisp fragrance of dewy grass and rare blossoms had been replaced with a stale odor of dirt and decay.

The Fairy headed back over to Duran. "We might be too late! Hurry!"

Taking off at a run, the trio positively flew through the deserted Holyland. Everywhere they went, plant life was dying and giant pillars had fallen, blocking their way. They forged new paths through the brush around the rubble, heedless of scrapes and scratches from bramble and branches, driven forward by the growing urgency of the Elementals' frantic pleas at the back of their minds. The foreboding feeling of dread that overcame them was worse than even when the Gate to the Mana Holyland had been opened prematurely. It was a sickening cloud of fear and unease that made the Princess feel as if they'd never be safe again.

It felt like they'd been running for hours, but given their pace it probably had only been a handful of minutes when they glimpsed the clearing where Duran had drawn the Mana Sword. Pushing forward, breathing heavily by now, the three of them tumbled out of the dying brush onto the grass.

Shock killed the words forming on the Princess's lips, though, when she spied the Dragon Emperor standing there calmly before them, Mana Sword discarded on the ground.

Where she knew the Mana Tree was supposed to be... there was nothing. Where once the most massive of trees stood, trunk large enough to accommodate a small palace and canopy so wide it seemed as though it could be the sky itself... there was just a crater of a stump.

Seemingly amused by their arrival, the Dragon Emperor turned to face them. "...It is done. You've arrived just in time to see my final glorious ascent into power. All the more fitting... it wouldn't be proper without an audience."

He... the Dragon Emperor... KILLED the Mana Goddess? He'd really done it?

Angela never thought that she'd actually get to be there at the end of the world. It was something that happened to other people only.

The Fairy shimmered into existence above Duran's head, angry tears streaming from her tiny eyes. "You... You monster!" For the first time showing a complete lack of fear for danger, the small glowing fairy rushed forward towards the Dragon Emperor - intending to do what, none of them knew.

"Fairy, NO!" Duran called out reflexively, hand outstretched as though to call her back to him.

The Dragon Emperor's eyes flickered, and without his even lifting a finger, the tiny deity was swatted out of the air by an unseen force, hitting the ground near the base of the crater that was once the Mana Tree with a nearly inaudible thump. Angela's heart clenched as the tiny body became still, and the ever-present glow diminished to a barely visible luminance.

Pointing a trembling finger, the Magus yelled, "Hey! What do you think you're doing! Nobody is allowed to swat that damn holy parasite before me!" She fervently hoped her angry tone covered the shaking in her voice.

Regarding them with cool eyes, the Dragon Emperor replied, "She was merely a nuisance, wasn't she? Just think, had she never solicited your help, you children wouldn't have had to suffer so much and risk your lives for a quest that gives you no personal reward. Now that she is gone, though..." He tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "I may just give you a choice. Given that you defeated both my Darkshine Knight and Koren, I have to acknowledge that you three are strong. Warriors at your level are few and far between. I am willing to spare your lives and that of your families if you agree to serve me in my new world."

"Become your slaves?" Hawk asked incredulously, already sliding into a battle-ready position. "I'm rather fond of my free-roaming lifestyle, thanks."

"As if we'd ever work for scum like you! I've never liked that Fairy, but her heart was at least always in the right place!" Angela agreed, grasping her Dragon Rod with both hands.

"We don't need any personal reward! The knowledge that we did the right thing is more than enough!" Duran announced, brandishing his sword angrily.

"We all became a lot stronger besides," Angela added. "As much as it pains me to say it, if we hadn't hooked up with the Fairy I may have been forever unable to use magic-"

"-I wouldn't have made friends that I cherish-," Hawk interjected.

"-And you would be standing here unopposed today! It's BECAUSE of the Fairy that we can stand up to you and prevent you from fulfilling your evil desires!" Duran concluded. "Prepare yourself!"

As one, the Magus, Paladin and Rogue charged, fighting spirits ignited.

They never saw it coming.

One moment, they were running forward with their weapons held high, and the next they were being blinded by a searing white light. Angela choked, feeling the powerful magic tearing her body apart, dimly aware that she was falling face-forward the ground as her limbs became numb.

She couldn't sense the gritty dirt beneath her chin, or any of her wounds, but she had the notion that she was bleeding, and that her comrades had fallen next to her - Duran on her left and Hawk on her right. What had that attack been? What spell was that? It had been so sudden, yet so incredibly powerful. None of them even had the chance to try and defend.

The Magus blinked, trying to focus her blurry vision. She could see the Dragon Emperor's boots as he turned away from them, but found herself incapable of raising her head further. She dragged in each breath, trying to force her body to get to its feet, but it refused to co-operate. Even the task of breathing seemed like a terrible chore, with each inhalation sending shooting pains through her lungs. Had their expensive armour really done nothing to lessen that blow?

They had failed. The Dragon Emperor was too strong - one unexpected attack had entirely wiped them out. This was it. After so many near-misses, so many desperate battles, they really were going to die. She was distantly aware of Wisp's attempts to heal them himself, but as she felt life slipping away from her, it seemed as though all the Elemental was doing was delaying the inevitable.

In the back of her mind, she was vaguely aware of a sort of cacophony of voices, all shouting at her, urging her to hold on, to not give up. Jinn, Gnome, Undine, Salamando, Shade... but even their voices became muted, as though she was underwater. It took a ridiculous amount of strength to turn her head to side. And there, sprawled face-down on the ground, lay Hawk. After a moment, she saw him similarly turn his head, in considerable pain, to face her.

Talking took what little strength she had left, and nearly all of her will. Each word seemed to constrict in her chest, leaving her short of breath. "Hawk..."

"Angie...," Hawk wheezed, putting all of his effort just into speaking. The Princess tried to focus on his mouth to better make out the words, ignoring her wavering vision and the blood trickling down the side of the Navarrian's tanned face. "I... have to tell you... I don't care if you like Duran...… I couldn't stop loving you. I wanted you... all for myself."

Angela's lips quirked involuntarily into a weak smile. She wanted to laugh, but she didn't have the strength. Figures that it would take dying for the bastard to finally come around.

There was so much she wanted to say right then. She wanted to explain everything to the thief, to tell him how he'd wound up consuming her world without even trying, how she'd been too slow to notice, how everything had been messed up, and how she really loved HIM and not Duran like he thought and that they'd lost so much time together because of the whole stupid misunderstanding. But she couldn't - she already knew she was dying. She had somewhere between minutes and seconds left. So in the end, she had to settle for saying it all in as few words as possible.

"You're... such an idiot...," she whispered. "You're..."

Her voice died in her throat, and her vision was starting to tunnel, so she simply mouthed the remainder, figuring that the Rogue would count lip reading among his many talents. She saw the amber eyes flicker, a tan hand shakingly try to reach towards her, though it couldn't cross the distance, and was relieved that he finally understood.

His image had become too blurry to make out, and the Magus could feel her eyes sliding shut against her will. It was terribly uncool to confess on your deathbed without at least getting a goodbye kiss, but neither of them could even properly choke out their last words, much less manage to die in each other's arms. She guessed it was naively romantic of her to wish for that. It looked like she'd have to be content with the fact that getting Hawk to admit his feelings was going to be the last thing she did after all. At the very least she'd made good on her word.

It was such a shame was that they'd never even get the chance to enjoy it.

Then suddenly one clear, divine, yet strangely familiar voice rang through their heads, cutting through the mental fog like a resonating bell.

"I WILL NOT ALLOW IT TO END LIKE THIS."

...Fairy?

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Please review. 


	55. The Fairy is What?

WARNING: For details on overall warning, see Chapter One. But if you haven't read it by now, what's the freaking point?

Author's note: AHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's over! I was originally going to do this ending in two chapters, but instead wound up doing it in one super-mammoth 10,000-word chapter instead. Sleep, who needs that? So this is my Christmas/New Year present to all of you. (Only just managed to get it in before year's end; that was close.)

So that's it. IT'S OVER. Crazy, huh? I've learnt a lot while writing this (first and foremost being that my attention span for any creative project limit is no more than two and a half years, after which point productivity on the old projects drops dramatically). I actually did a (slightly) more thorough post-mortem on my website, but repeating it here would probably violate ff net regulations.

Thanks to everyone who managed to stick with this fic despite the increasingly long waits between updates towards the end. A super-special thanks goes to Cookie Pixie, who I who I believe was the only reviewer to stick with the story from the very first post. I would throw you a parade if I could. Honourable mentions go to (smiley face), WaterDragonerS, StaciNadia, Soriyu, DemonicDragonOfRa, TheOneAndOnlyT…. Ah, crap, there's a lot of you who deserve personal thank yous. An extra special nod of appreciation goes to Wings of Lead, Lone Ronin and Truewind who continually provided excellent critiques throughout that were useful in helping me pick up on problems that needed fixing and areas that could use improvement. I'd actually like to thank everyone by name, but more than a few people have changed their nicknames over time, and quite frankly, there's not enough space here accommodate everyone who reviewed regularly. But don't worry – if you weren't mentioned by name, that doesn't mean I don't like you. (Well, I guess it COULD mean that, but that's just being paranoid. Don't be. You're awesome. :) )

So yes. This is the last chapter. Thanks for the ride, everyone. The ending was more saccharine than intended, but maybe that's just my happiness from finishing the damn thing shining through? Despite previous plans to develop some other ideas, I'm going to take a break from the SD3 fandom for a while to work on some other projects now. Admittedly I'll miss working on this 'little' side project, since it has been going on for so long, but another part of me is sort of happy to see it go.

Anyhow, that's enough from me. Shoo, go read already. And when you're done, let me know what you thought. Do I suck at endings? You only get one chance per fic to find out.

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**  
Another Witchmaker**

Chapter 55 – The Fairy is What?

By Sinnatious

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Angela wasn't entirely certain what had happened - one moment she'd been about to draw her last breath as she lay dying on the ground, and what seemed to be an instant later she was standing; clean, healthy and wholly intact. She felt the most invigorated and best rested that she had in months, and her magic sang beneath her skin as pure Mana energy swirled like a loving cocoon around her. The Magus glanced down, checking herself over in mild disbelief. Was all that blood on the ground really hers? She couldn't figure out where it had come from. 

Never mind how revitalised she felt - how was she even alive?

She turned, her eyes seeking out her companions to find them similarly restored and bewildered on their feet. Finally, the Princess's gaze wandered to the blank-faced Dragon Emperor. She presumed the lack of expression meant that he was almost as dumbfounded as they were.

'THIS WILL BE MY FINAL GIFT TO YOU. A SECOND CHANCE,' the voice resounded through their heads again. Angela's eyes immediately sought out their tiny guardian, but there was no sign of her. She had vanished.

"Hmph. I suppose I underestimated what one of the Goddess's little errand runners was capable of," the Dragon Emperor sneered.

He wasn't the only one.

Duran withdrew his Sacred Shield from his back. "You won't catch us by surprise a second time," he warned, sliding into a battle ready position with his shield in his left hand and his sword in his right.

Angela looked to Hawk on her right. "I have a damn good reason to live right now, so you're going down in flames," she announced.

The Rogue was at her side in an instant, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Before she could even blink, he appeared again several strides away. "Just in case!" he called.

"You! You better not think about dying! No more crazy stunts from you! You're not avoiding me any longer!" Angela ordered, pointing a gloved finger at the cheeky Navarrian. "We are so having sex after this!"

Duran, thankfully, either didn't hear the Princess's statement or was incapable of processing it. The Dragon Emperor, however, raised a single blonde eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Angela whirled back towards their foe. "You shut up! We'll get to you in a moment! But I have to sort this stubborn fool out because Goddess help me I finally got him to admit how he feels and I don't care if he thought he was about to die, I'm not letting him go back on it!"

"I swear, Angie, I really thought-"

"I don't want excuses! You should be thankful I'm not fire balling your ass right now for putting me through so much heartache!"

"Angie-"

There was rumbling in the background and a flash of ochre out the corner of her eyes, but the Magus continued regardless. "I know we've got a lot of talking to do and this isn't really the right place or time, but-"

"ANGIE! I agree. But right now, there is a giant dragon in front of you. Please look," the thief interrupted.

Finally ceasing her tirade, the Princess focused her attention back on the matter at hand. Where the Dragon Emperor once stood now sat an enormously large golden dragon.

"Wait... so the Dragon Emperor is an ACTUAL DRAGON?" Angela exclaimed in disbelief.

"More likely is that he used magic to turn himself into one," Hawk replied.

Duran tensed slightly, backing up a step. "On your guard," he warned.

It would be awe-inspiring if the Dragon Emperor wasn't their enemy. Flammie looked like a kitten next to this monster - and Flammie was considered the 'Father' of the Winged Ones'! Even when their cute white dragon had been super-sized by Hawk using the Body Change spell, she hadn't even been close to this large! They were barely as tall as one of his claws!

So their enemy was an enormous dragon. They could deal with this. Sure. No problem.

"Spread out!" Hawk called, already darting to the right. "That way he can't wipe us all out in one blow!"

Duran nodded, running towards the dragon's left flank. Angela backed up a bit - she hardly needed to be in such perilously close range to use her magic - as she'd already established that hitting this monster with her Dragon Rod would likely be ineffectual, regardless of the weapon's name. It was a good plan, she decided as they took up formation. Even if he managed to nail one of them with another spell like the last, there'd be one of them left to distract their foe while the other revived their ally. Hopefully he didn't take too many pot shots at the Paladin, because Angela wasn't sure how many of those miracle curing elixirs they had left.

Once they were spread out, though, it seemed as though none of them were quite certain how to proceed. How exactly did they tackle such a massive creature? Even the God-Beasts, as large as some of them had been, seemed comparatively manageable. They really were insects next to this monster.

The Dragon Emperor, likewise, seemed to be having trouble deciding who to kill first. While he swung his massive head around, Hawk took the opportunity to let fly a barrage of Grande Bombs and Cutter Missiles. The dragon roared in pain as the at first seemingly dismissible projectiles exploded in his face.

Angela grinned, following up with a series of decent-sized Holy Balls. They didn't seem do anything more than annoy their foe and leave a few scorch marks on his scales, but all they could do for the moment was test the waters for a potential weakness that could be exploited.

Duran ran in with his Brave Blade held high and his Sacred Shield at the ready. With a war cry, he buried the sword to its hilt in the Emperor's left flank, eliciting a displeased grumble from the belly of the beast. The dragon lashed out with his claws, catching the Paladin by surprise and sending him flying. She kept a wary eye on the Mana Knight as he clambered to his feet a moment later - his breastplate had apparently protected him from the worst of the blow. It at least looked like that because of their size, the monolith's claws were not sharp enough to pierce armour.

To distract the dragon from his prey while the Forcenan regained his footing, Angela let loose another barrage of Holy Balls, then threw herself to the ground to avoid the sweeping strike of a clawed foot. She rolled back to her feet as soon as they were clear, leaping backwards to avoid a second attempted strike. Hawk darted in and out to lay quick strikes, aiming for the underbelly but almost always having to retreat to avoid being crushed by stomping feet. Duran quickly cast a small amount of healing magic on himself to allow easier movement before waiting for another opening in which to dash in with his sword.

They continued this dance for quite a while - not really doing anything to significantly wound the Dragon Emperor, but they were at least annoying him somewhat. Despite their near-death experience, the Magus was feeling heartened. Their foe was impossibly massive, but because of his size he was at least somewhat slow. Not terribly slow - Duran's sturdy armour was probably all that was keeping him alive at the moment - but his movements were sluggish enough that Hawk could dodge his swiping claws and snapping teeth with ease, and Angela was far enough away that she could see any attacks coming soon enough to avoid them. Fortuitously, he hadn't let loose another one of those spells yet, either - the Princess was rather hoping that his magical power was not equal with his magical stamina. If they were lucky, he'd used up too much of his magic with that spell on them the first time to cast it again anytime soon.

Not that the Magus intended on waiting around for that to happen. "Clear the way!" she yelled in warning, her two companions immediately retreating from their assault. "DIAMOND MISSILE!"

She'd poured a large amount of magic into the spell, and as such the spars of rock that formed in the sky were quite a bit larger than normal. They plummeted down upon the Dragon Emperor's unsuspecting head with blinding speed.

Their foe roared in pain as the deadly gemstone spars struck. One of the small ones bounced off his head, landing near the Princess, but three of the larger ones drove into his body, half-sticking out like sparkling barnacles. A moment later, the magic forming the missiles dissipated, revealing three deep gouges that started to ooze blood.

Not even wasting a moment, the Princess prepared another spell, calling upon even more of Gnome's power. She gathered her energy and planted her Dragon Rod in the ground, forcing her magic into the earth. The ground rumbled ominously as she poured more and more of her power into it.

"EARTHQUAKE!" It probably wasn't necessary to shout the spell, but it helped her focus, and when throwing around these sorts of spells, every little bit helped.

The ground erupted beneath the Dragon Emperor's feet, sending spears of rock and earth into his underbelly, knocking the monolithic beast off balance. He crashed to the side, crushing the spars of rocks beneath him. It seemed as if the entire isle shook with the impact as a cloud of dust rose around the golden beast's form.

Duran used the opportunity while the dragon was getting to its feet to rush in and deal another strike with his sword. "SAINT SABRE!" he yelled as he plunged the glowing blade deep into the dragon's breast. In reality, the blade's length was not enough to reach any vital organs, but they'd bleed this monster who dared slay the Goddess to death by a thousand cuts if they had to!

Angela took a deep breath, preparing to start gathering magic for another spell, wanting to be ready to strike as soon as the Paladin retreated and she had a clear shot. She paused momentarily when she saw the dragon rear it head into the sky, tensing in preparation to dodge another snapping bite if necessary.

That wasn't what followed, however. The Dragon Emperor opened his massive jaws wide, and let loose a blood-curdling roar.

The very air seemed to shake. Reflexively, Angela dropped her staff, hands pressed against her ears and eyes squeezed shut. She forced them open against her will, and managed to make out Duran's blurry figure on his knees, similarly positioned. Hawk, on the other hand, had managed to fight off that reflex and kept his feet and weapons, but seemed to be stunned still. This wasn't just the angry bellow of an irritated beast - there was magic interwoven in that shout; it thrummed with a power that made her head feel like it might be split open even with her hands pressed tightly over her ears.

After what felt like a lifetime the screeching roar ended, though it lingered with a dull ringing in their ears. Tentatively, Angela removed her hands from her head and grabbed her cane from the ground. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Hawk stumbling drunkenly for a few moments before regaining his stance. Meanwhile, the Dragon Emperor had immediately started attacking Duran again, knocking the Forcenan around like a rag doll. That armour of his was able to take some serious punishment - most any other metal would have caved in by now, but thanks to it the Paladin just had to make certain that he landed correctly and he could get away with what would later amount to be nothing more than painful bruises, as opposed to crushed organs.

The Magus stepped a little further out of range, moving into spell-casting stance once again to gather her magic. Electricity started to snap and crackle in the air around her as she called forth Jinn's power, taking longer than usual to focus - that abnormal scream had left her nerves slightly addled, and as such she was still feeling a little woozy and confused. After what felt like a painfully long time, she'd managed to gather enough magic for the spell. "Hey!"

Duran glanced her way, barely dodged a snap of the Dragon Emperor's jaws, and quickly rolled to the side, scrambling to his feet and quickly putting as much distance between himself and their foe as possible without leaving the wide clearing. The Rogue, on the other hand, moved in from behind, daggers at the ready, though his movements seemed more sluggish than usual.

"Hawk!" she called again when the thief didn't seem to heed her warning. Comprehension dawned a moment later when she spotted the smudge of blood on the edges of his ears. He'd been deafened by that magically enhanced shout before! After a moment, fortunately, he sent a glance her way and caught on that she had another spell she was ready to let loose, and quickly backtracked.

Not a moment too soon - she'd barely been able to hold off on releasing the spell. "THUNDERSTORM!"

Thunder boomed as lightning bolted down from the sky, converging on the golden dragon with accuracy and temporarily blinding the Princess with the flash of white light. For an instant, her skin prickled as the air was filled with static energy, before the magic receded once again. Angela blinked the black dots back out of her vision, keen to see the handiwork of her spell.

It seemed that only half of her thunderbolts had hit, if the scorch marks were any indication. The air was filled with the scent of something similar to burning hair, which she sincerely hoped wasn't her own. The Dragon Emperor growled in displeasure, shaking his body slightly as a dog might do to shake off water, sparks and zaps crackling randomly from his scales.

Duran had taken the brief reprieve her spell had provided to give himself a quick once over with healing magic, and after a series of communicative gestures between them, he hurriedly sent some Hawk's way as well. The Navarrian nodded his thanks, and the trio all retreated a safe distance as it appeared that their foe had regained his bearings once again, taking a moment to catch their own breaths and gather their draining energy, Angela relaxing slightly as she felt the cooling tinge of a light healing spell pass over her, chasing away the worst of her accumulated bruises. By now the dragon was pockmarked with scorch marks and wounds from their attacks, but they'd yet to deal any truly crippling blows to it. Even the Magus's largest spells left mostly superficial damage.

Angela crouched low as a powerful gust of wind washed over them, keeping a wary eye on their enemy. The Dragon Emperor unfurled his massive wings fully for the first time – giant leathery sails that could easily shelter a house from the rain - and started to beat them slowly. Was he going to execute another weird spell?

It appeared not. As the dragon growled deep within his throat, he began rising into the air, the blasts of wind continuing to wash over them with each massive wing stroke. With a bone-shaking roar, their foe took to the sky.

No! If he had the advantage of the air, they'd be at a huge disadvantage! The Magus highly doubted that their cowardly overgrown flying kitten of a white dragon would come anywhere near the Holyland with this monstrosity here, so they'd have to bring him back down to the ground themselves. How, though? She and Hawk were the only ones with any sort of long-distance attacks, and the distance would likely further minimize the amount of damage they'd be able to inflict. Unless...

"Angie! You take the left wing! I'll take the right!" Hawk called, already dashing into position. They had to act quick, before their foe had the chance to get any higher.

"I'm on it!" she replied, already moving into position. She hurriedly focused her magic, keeping an eye on Hawk, waiting so that they could strike simultaneously. At the sight of a wink from her beloved, she let loose.

"DIAMOND MISSILE!" Giant spars of rock formed in the air above the dragon's left wing. Simultaneously, the Rogue threw half a dozen cutter missiles with impressive strength towards the right. The Dragon Emperor, sensing attack coming from two directions, tried to dodge both by twisting mid-air and managed to dodge neither. The gemstone missiles tore through the leathery skin of the left wing, and upon impact Hawk's flying axes exploded, leaving the right wing in tatters. With an angry wail, the dragon plummeted back to the earth, no longer able to maintain altitude with his wings injured and useless.

The Magus and Rogue barely avoided being crushed when mighty beast impacted the earth with a ground-shaking thump. The monster pulled himself to his feet a moment later and angrily started lashing out at her and Hawk, the Paladin temporarily forgotten. The Princess barely dodged his swiping claws, crouching low as she found her feet again in hopes that it made her a slightly smaller target. Not that it really helped against such a monstrous foe. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Hawk preparing to launch another attack, and quickly flung a powerful Holy Ball directly at the dragon's eyes. It didn't particularly hurt him, but it did at least blind him long enough for the Navarrian to unleash a flurry of attacks before retreating a safe distance once again.

She growled in irritation, pushing lavender hair from her eyes. Her smaller spells seemed to do nothing save annoy the beast, but if she started throwing around her higher level spells with any more frequency her endurance wouldn't last. She only had one of those foul magic herbs remaining, having spent one of Duran already, and as such was reluctant to use it until absolutely necessary. As it was the Paladin was starting to run low again from his frequent use of healing magic and saint sabre. Hawk was becoming more economical with his magic traps also - he was likely conserving his strength as well.

It appeared that this was turning into a battle of endurance. And considering their foe, that was definitely a dangerous position to be in. Her gloved hands gripped her Dragon Rod a little tighter. They weren't going to waste this second chance at life the Fairy had given them. She refused to even consider this a battle they might lose. She had the power of LOVE on her side, dammit!

"Fire ball!"

The volley of fireballs rained down upon the dragon, who seemed to shrug them off with what almost resembled a smirk. Angela cursed - she'd forgotten that only the most potent of fire magic had any hope of burning any dragon's scales.

She was willing to keep trying, though. "EXPLODE!"

This time, the dragon was enveloped in a bursting wave of fire magic. Angela half-gasped, half-panted, trying to catch her breath as she squinted through the smoke. "Dear Goddess, he's one tough bastard," she muttered when the monster emerged from the receding flames, sooty and burnt in some places, but still largely intact. Even if the monster was resistant to fire, Explode was one of her strongest spells! It should have done more damage than that!

Angela searched her mind for another spell that might be useful. The only magic she hadn't used yet was Undine's and Shade's, but she wasn't entirely certain how effective dark magic would be against someone who had so clearly formed a pact with the Underworld. Even then, trying to gather her magic was starting to feel rather like trying to scoop honey with her fingers - she didn't think she'd really be able to get any more high level spells out without fainting from magical exhaustion - something she couldn't risk in this situation. The growing tiredness of her own body and the slightly aching muscles - discomforts that healing magic was never quite able to fully chase away - certainly wasn't helping the situation any, either.

As a Magus, this had to be the first time she'd ever spent all of her magical endurance - even the magic-intense battle with Koren hadn't left her so dry. She eyed her last remaining magic herb clutched in her hands warily. It wouldn't be enough for more than one or two high-level spells, but one or two were better than none. Not wasting another moment, she quickly chewed and swallowed it, grimacing briefly at the sharp taste. It only took a moment before she felt her magical endurance replenish itself.

It seemed as though the dragon had used that brief lull efficiently also. Outright ignoring Duran's rushing sword attacks - even with Saint Sabre applied, the Paladin's sword couldn't drive deep enough to do any serious damage - the Dragon Emperor had started gathering magic of his own. The air seemed to warm, the Princess retreated slightly as she recognized the forming spell to be fire-based. It was too large, though. Over time, her magical senses had become honed enough to recognise most spells as they were cast, and while she could pinpoint this as a fire spell, it was bigger than any she'd come across. Dear Goddess, was he going to cast a fire spell even larger than Explode?!

Cursing the Dragon Emperor's apparent sense of one-up-man-ship, the Magus hurriedly gestured warnings to her comrades to be on the defensive - though both of them had caught on already. Her mind raced. If it really was a spell larger than Explode, Duran's Sacred Shield and Hawk's Silverwolf Pelt wouldn't be able to hold up against it. Even forgetting that - would her Magma Hairpin be enough to protect herself? It had turned Koren's Explode into harmless magical energy easily enough, but the Wizard of the Red Lotus hadn't possessed the same raw power of the Dragon Emperor.

In the end, she only had a split second to make the decision, as a wall of white flame suddenly exploded outward from their foe with a deafening roar, charring the ground black in its path. "MEGASPLASH! MEGASPLASH!" She yelled, throwing one of the monstrously huge water spells over each of her companions, before drawing her Ancient Robe around herself desperately, hoping against hope that her spell was enough to at least remove most of the fire's strength and that her friends wouldn't drown. She winced as the blinding white wall of flame reached her, acutely aware this time of the rising whine of her Magma Hairpin.

The flames that tried to lick at her body dissolved into motes of light as her magical accessory came to life. Even then, it felt as though the destructive magic applied more pressure, moving in closer and closer, and the Princess could feel the ornament growing hot in her hair, even as there was a dizzying rush of magic into her drained body. More and more the fire pressed, until it almost felt that she had regained almost all of her lost magical stamina, and yet still the flames continued to compress her cocoon of safety, trying to breach the invisible barrier that the magical artefact wove around her.

There was a tiny snap, the whine died, and suddenly the white flames enveloped her. For one instant as the Princess huddled under her Ancient Robe, Angela felt a stab of cold, intense fear spike in her stomach, squeezing her eyes shut in expectation of a painful death as she felt the searing heat pass her by... then blessed silence. Almost meekly, she cracked opened her eyes, but the blasting heat and blinding light of white fire had vanished. How by the Goddess was she still alive?

Apparently the hairpin had broken under the strain, but it had held out until the last minute, and her Ancient Robe had been enough to keep the end of the spell at bay, even though it hadn't stood a chance against the full barrage - that overpriced ornament from Pedan had saved her life again, apparently. Furthermore, her magic had been replenished - not completely, of course, and she didn't have any magic herbs left... but it was enough for one last spell to gamble everything on.

Cautiously, she shook back her Ancient Robe, smoke rising from the fabric. It had clearly only just held together, if the slightly burnt, dog-eared edges were anything to go by. The hairpin - now little more than charcoal - dropped from her head, and landed on the ground to mix in with ashes of the grass that had remained.

Instantly, her eyes sought out Hawk. A cough alerted her to his presence - he'd thrown himself to the ground, hunched under his pelt. Steam rose in billowing clouds around him, but she could see that he hadn't suffered anything other than a few burns on the exposed patches of skin, and by the sounds of his gagging, had swallowed a bit too much of that torrent of icy water she'd thrown over him at the last second. She searched for Duran next, who seemed to be in similar shape, already applying healing magic to take care of the worst of the burns.

It didn't seem real that they'd come through that spell intact - the Princess idly wondered what it was called. From the deep growl emanating from the Dragon Emperor, it seemed that he was finding it hard to believe also. Angela smirked, ignoring the weariness of her body as she balanced on the balls of her feet, ready to dodge whatever attack might come next. They weren't going to die so easily.

Gloating over their miraculous survival probably wasn't the best idea, as immediately the Dragon Emperor lashed out at her with a sweeping strike of his tail. The Princess braced herself with her Dragon Rod, sliding back as she blocked the blow. The term 'blocked' was admittedly being generous - she'd stopped the tail from slamming into her, but it still pushed her back. She was darn lucky there weren't any trees left in the clearing after that last spell to smash in to - it was a small miracle she'd been even able to keep her footing. With a roar, the Dragon Emperor wheeled around again, claws slashing and tail whishing as he started attacking in a frenzy, sending them scrabbling for cover as he spouted flares of fire from his mouth and stomped the ground in a violent tantrum.

Angela gasped as the edge of one blind swipe caught her and threw her to the ground. There wasn't time to take note of her aches and pains or check to see whether any bones were broken - she simply rolled away before clambering back to her feet. To her left, Duran was attempting to find some way past the dragon's tail, having at some point wound up facing the monster's back. To the right she could see Hawk out of the corner of her eyes, practically dancing between the bursts of flame and snapping teeth, though exhaustion was starting to slow his movements some, and more than once he was sent sailing through the air - though the Rogue somehow always managed to land on his feet. All the same, the Magus couldn't help but keep a concerned eye on him, not trusting that he wasn't going to perform some suicidal stunt when she was not looking. The thought of Hawk dying before her eyes was even more chilling than considering the prospect of her own death.

She shook her head in a vain attempt to clear it of such morbid thoughts. They were going to win this. They HAD to win this. She couldn't afford to be distracted by such concerns. She believed in Hawk, and knew that he believed in her, too. Duran, too, didn't know the meaning of defeat, so much so that he'd once left his hometown simply to avenge his loss at the hands of Koren.

Resolute, she stood, ignoring the faint breeze that had picked up at some point during the battle that tousled her hair and billowed her cape. Setting her expression determinedly, she started pooling her magic, drawing it out in preparation of being unleashed. All of it.

They couldn't let the fight drag on any longer. She'd rather put her all in and fail spectacularly than allow her remaining reserves of strength to be whittled down until she collapsed.

Hawk wasn't the only one capable of pulling off crazy suicidal moves.

She gestured to her companions, and they both nodded, understanding her silent signal to keep the Dragon Emperor busy. She backed a little further away from the battle as they renewed their attacks, continuing the laborious task of gathering all of her magic as she settled into a traditional spell-casting position. She rarely needed to concentrate that hard for most of her spells these days, but this... this was going to be more chaotic than a herd of Carlies. It was going to take all of her strength to control.

One last shot. That's all she had. One crazy, forbidden spell that she'd never even read about, but somehow knew.

The real trick was going to be controlling it.

Instinct was all that was really guiding her now, as she slowly started weaving her power into the incredibly complex spell. She was distantly aware of the Dragon Emperor grunting in mild pain as Duran landed another long saint-sabre assisted sword slash. As the magic in the air grew, though, she saw the slitted blue eyes of the Dragon Emperor turn to her, widening in surprise. Had he recognised what spell she was trying to call?

As if in slow motion, he made as though to swoop down upon her, to snap at her and interrupt her concentration. No! If he struck now, she'd lose it all - her spell would unravel, the magic would scatter, and the best result would be a messy, ineffectual explosion! She couldn't move, though, couldn't risk letting even the slightest instability develop in her magic, lest it rage out of control and release itself before she was ready.

In her peripheral vision, she caught a flash of purple, moving to intercept. With a speed that no human should have been capable of, Hawk appeared, body twisted mid-flight, Manthroaters glinting. An instant later, a shallow gash appeared on the golden dragon's nose, then another under his left eye, then another on the side of his long neck. The Rogue vanished, only to reappear again for a split second before seeming to almost flicker from existence as an after-image once again, a flurry of shallow slices opening in his wake. Five, six, seven... twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two... Angela was trying so hard to keep up with his impossibly fast movements that she almost forgot to keep her attention on her own spell. Still, the Navarrian continued, a confused Dragon Emperor stepping backwards as reptilian eyes attempted to follow the impossibly fast movements of Hawk's swirling short swords, even as dozens upon dozens of shallow cuts cleaved almost simultaneously through the golden scales as though by magic.

The onslaught continued as the Navarrian seemed to flash in and out of existence, appearing above the dragon's left flank, then a second later by his right eye, leaving a trail of shallow wounds in his path. The monster stumbled as Hawk kicked off the top of his head and back flipped through the air before landing on the ground some distance away, leaving their foe covered in what had to be a thousand shallow gashes that all were slowly oozing blood. "All yours, Angie."

Her face lit up with a feral grin. "Thanks, darling." It was time.

She spun once to fling her cape free, and held her Dragon Rod aloft the sky. Immediately, the heavens seemed to darken, and her two companions retreated from the battered and now decidedly nervous-looking Dragon Emperor, leaving him alone in the centre of a charred circle of grass.

The magic whirled, chaotic and unseen around the Magus, before vanishing into the void of the sky, tethered to the Princess only by the most tenuous of connections that pulsed with invisible power. The sound seemed to drain from the arena as the gentle breeze suddenly died and a heavy blanket of silence clouded the fight. As such, all of them could hear it clearly when Angela whispered one word, eyes aglow with power.

"Ancient."

The silence was broken by a distant rumble, growing louder by the second, accompanied by the shrill whistle of rushing air and roaring fire. The darkened arena began to glow with an almost unnatural light from above, and hesitantly, the Dragon Emperor raised his head heavenward, blue eyes widening in horror at the sight that greeted him.

A hail of meteors approached; giant rocks with long burning tails of flame that tore through the atmosphere above them, converging on a giant dragon that suddenly seemed no more intimidating than a rabite. The instant of realization seemed to last forever - the moments after that, however, passed in the blink of an eye as the meteors tore through the air with terrifying speed and slammed into earth with a resonating boom.

The earth shook, dirt rose in great clouds, and a second later a shockwave of air blasted from the epicentre of the impact like an unexpected punch to the gut.

Amidst the fires, smoke and dirt, a Magus stood, cape billowing. She'd done it. She'd pulled it off.

Angela dropped to the ground gasping a moment later, having barely managed to remain standing after that shockwave - even now, she wasn't certain how it was possible. She felt dizzy from the massive exertion of magic, and thoroughly drained - even the thought of trying to cast a Holy Ball at that moment was enough to make her nauseous. Blearily, she attempted to focus on the silhouette of the fallen dragon laying in the centre of the smoking crater.

The Dragon Emperor had fallen on his side. He was barely recognizable now, with most of the golden scales charred black or smeared with dirt. His tail had been severed, his legs broken, and a huge chunk of his rear flank seemed to be missing. One shredded wing stuck awkwardly up into the sky and his long neck lay against the ground as the beast wheezed, struggling to draw breath. Reptilian blue eyes opened after a moment, darting about in panic, trying to track the movements of his enemy.

Angela picked herself up, but had to lean heavily on her staff to remain upright, spent as she was. She saw Hawk rise from the dirt nearby, relief coursing through her at the sight - more than anything, she'd been terrified that the might of her own spell might blow away her companions, but the Navarrian looked nothing more than a little bruised, tired and dusty.

A rattle of metal alerted her to Duran's presence. The Paladin stepped forward; having picked himself up from the ground after the shockwave had passed. His sword still held the faint sheen of Saint Sabre, and his armour, though slightly dusty, still retained its shine. His face was set with a determined expression that spoke of his honour and pride as the one christened Mana Knight.

The clearing was silent, save for the raspy breaths of their fallen foe, as the Forcenan stepped forward heavily. This monster... this was the man, the beast, that had dared not only slay the Mana Goddess, dared cut down the Mana tree, but had even saw fit to kill their self-proclaimed Guardian, and had come closer than any other to killing them. This was the treacherous individual that had turned Duran's father into an unwilling servant, puppeteered wars and made pacts with the Underworld.

There was never any question about allowing him to live.

Duran paused briefly as he stopped in front of the crippled dragon, who didn't - couldn't - move, save for his gaze which followed the Mana Knight unerringly. Then, in one swift movement, the Paladin plunged his sword in between the cold blue eyes, burying it up to its hilt.

"Light Flash Blade."

Angela tried to force herself to keep her gaze trained on the two, despite the blinding explosion of pure white light that resembled the sun. In the end, though, she had to close them lest her eyeballs be burned from their sockets, and when she opened them again, the body of the Dragon Emperor was lacking a head, and it was finally over. She stood in reverent silence as the massive carcass dissolved into granules of darkness that evaporated harmlessly into the air; one last foul breath of twisted magic disappearing into the void.

The bruised, burnt, dusty and exhausted trio stood there for a long moment, not entirely certain what to do or say.

Finally, Duran asked, "Wow, Hawk, what was that move at the end?"

"Thousand Slice," he replied absentmindedly. "Though I rather feel as though my fancy new move was completely overshadowed by Angie's... somewhat awe-inspiring finishing spell."

"Awe-inspiring or not, that was so irresponsible! Do you have any idea of how badly that spell could have gone wrong? YOU COULD HAVE DESTROYED EVERYTHING! One slip and you might have as well destroyed the world with that spell! I'd better not catch you ever using that spell again, Angela!"

"Stuff it, gnat," the Magus snapped tiredly. "I dare say that the risk was well worth it, considering our opponent probably would have DESTROYED THE WORLD ANYWAY. And I pulled it off, didn't I?" Then she did a double take. "Fairy? What on earth?"

Sure enough, floating there before them was a familiar visage - the Fairy with her arms crossed, gossamer wings a-flutter and lips pouted in disapproval.

"Duran, good work," the tiny deity added as an afterthought, then turned a begrudging look of mild congratulations on to the Altenan and Navarrian. "And it looks like you two seem to have finally sorted things out between yourselves."

At that reminder, Angela whirled on the thief standing at her side, poking him in the shoulder. "You! I knew it! Why did you torture me for so long, even after I outright confessed to you?!"

Hawk had the grace to look mildly embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head with one hand somewhat sheepishly. "My own feelings aside, I really did think that you liked Duran."

"You're not that stupid! It was obvious that my feelings changed! Surely you knew that I was telling the truth LATER!"

"How was I to know you weren't just on the rebound?! I can't read minds!"

Angela snorted her contempt of that excuse.

"But I can always get the Fairy to read it for me..."

"NO WAY! I don't want to have ANYTHING do with all those dirty thoughts!" The Fairy announced, indignant and blushing fiercely.

Hawk raised an eyebrow speculatively. "Angie, I wasn't even IMPLYING anything and now you're having naughty thoughts?"

The Princess was in the middle of trying to force her face back down to a colour paler than her dress. Damn that tale-telling Fairy! Besides, it wasn't like the glorified insect was capable of reading her mind right then! The little nuisance should stop making stuff up!

Duran, in the meantime, was standing there looking mildly lost. Suddenly realising that the Mana Knight was probably feeling terribly rejected and very much a third wheel right then, the Princess turned to him, though grabbed Hawk's arm as she did so and held it close. For once, the Rogue neither protested nor seemed inclined to slip out of her hold. "Duran, I'm sorry if you got confused there... but you already had my answer."

The Paladin blinked, but apparently their relationship was about the last thing on his mind at that point in time. "Oh, no, I understand. I mean, I had hoped, but... well... um, congratulations?" he stuttered.

Hawk grabbed his hand with his free arm and shook it firmly, then slapped him on the back. "Sorry, Duran, you're a great guy, but I'm going to steal this one from you."

The Forcenan managed a wry smile, before replying, "As expected from a thief. Personally, after that last spell, I think Princess Angela is a little too much for me. You're a braver man than I, Hawk." His grin widened. "While we're at it, I should thank you both - neither of you had to accompany me on this quest, but you risked your lives all the same. I couldn't have done it without you."

"Oh, come on, ENOUGH with the heartfelt speeches already," Angela complained.

"Don't be such a wet blanket, Angela," the Fairy chided. "Duran's trying to express his gratitude even AFTER you walked all over his heart without the slightest care for his feelings!"

At those words, the Mana Knight returned his focus back to their tiny guardian. "Fairy, are you... I mean, we were worried...," Duran hemmed and hawed. Angela and Hawk also turned their attention back to their glowing guardian. The Paladin had a point. They really had thought that their little holy parasite had bit the dust for a while there. Even now, she seemed strangely... insubstantial. Was that actually the Fairy, and not some sort of apparition?

"While we're on the topic, what are we going to do about the Mana tree?" Angela asked, horror growing as the reality of the situation settled back in. Defeating the Dragon Emperor and getting together with Hawk both seemed like such an impossible tasks that she'd almost completely forgotten about the small detail of the MANA TREE BEING DEAD. What was going to happen to the world without the Mana Goddess? The Princess was almost certain that this was a topic that had never once been covered in her studies.

"Fairy, are you really okay? I thought... you said... your final gift...," Hawk rambled, apparently also not quite able to decide what question was the most pertinent to ask at that point.

"I mean, if the Mana Goddess is really dead, what's going to happen to you?' Duran asked anxiously. "What's going to happen to the world? To all of us?" Elation at their victory was quickly giving way to panic at the enormity of their greater failure.

The Fairy smiled softly at them. "There's no need to worry. It's all taken care of. You all did so well. I'm so proud of you. I'm so very glad I chose you."

The Paladin was growing even more uncertain. "Fairy? You're really... you really are going to die?"

"Don't be afraid, Duran. When a Fairy meets three heroes who come to believe in her..."

"Hey, I never believed in you! Not even once!" Angela interrupted.

"I can't say I had a great deal of confidence in you either," Hawk admitted. "And heroes? Sure, we did some cool stuff, but isn't 'heroes' pushing it?"

Heedlessly, the Fairy continued, "...and the Goddess passes on, she dies... and becomes the seed of the new Goddess."

"I mean, I might have developed a soft spot for you simply by association, but never once - WHAT?!" Angela squawked, doing yet another double take.

The image of the irritating glowing gnat that they'd become so familiar with faded before their eyes, and a moment later was replaced with the translucent image of an ethereal beauty... a likeness remarkably similar to the one that graced so many statues and shrines across the countryside.

"Thank you, everyone," the musical voice reached their ears - so similar to the tone the Goddess had spoken in, but now laced with a new familiarity. "Mana's presence may dwindle for a time, but in a thousand years, its power will blossom once again. Be sure to tell your children, and your children's children, so that the legend of the Mana Tree lives on."

"Fairy...," Duran breathed.

"You all performed so much better than I hoped... you've all grown so strong... go now and be happy. Your sacrifices will not be forgotten." Her words grew dim, and so too did the ethereal goddess fade from sight, until it was almost as though she had been nothing more than a hallucination. However, at the centre of the remains of the Mana Tree, they could spy a small sapling, so out of place amongst the charred and torn ground that it could have been mistaken for a particularly stubborn weed.

Angela, in the meantime, was still trying to process this enormous revelation. If she was understanding things correctly, after all that, the tiny little irritating gnat that had bothered them throughout this entire crazy journey... WAS THE NEXT GODDESS?!

Boy was she in trouble now.

"Don't think too hard about it," Hawk murmured in her ear. "Hey, Duran, what now?"

The Forcenan frowned. "I suppose I'd better head back to Forcenan to report the situation to King Richard. I'd like to go see my family again too. Do you guys want to come?"

"Hmm, what do you think, Angie?" Hawk asked, sliding an arm around her waist.

"I think that we are retiring to a private inn to get properly acquainted," she replied with a challenging glare, then faltered a little. "And rest up a little, too."

"Oh, does anyone need healing magic?" Duran asked in concern.

The Princess waved him off. "You're just as magically exhausted as I am. What injuries are left aren't anything that won't heal on their own after a day or two." Hawk nodded his agreement. They'd had plenty of doses of that magic throughout the lengthy battle anyway, and it tended to start to lose its effectiveness with over-application.

"What do you think? Should we make use of those nice facilities in Forcena's inn?" Hawk asked.

"I'd rather go to the one in Byzel," the Princess replied grumpily. "King Richard creeps me out."

"But I think he might be your-"

"Besides, we should let Duran have all the glory there!" she interrupted hurriedly. "We can drop him off on the way, right, Duran? Actually, what are you planning to do after that?"

"I think I might go to Rolante to let Riesz know what's going on. Probably the Beast Kingdom, too," the Paladin mused.

Angela wrinkled her nose, "I suppose I also ought to drop by Altena and tell my mother to stop wasting magic warming the castle town when Mana isn't going to be as plentiful as it was before." She turned to Hawk, promising pain with her eyes if he dared disagree. "You're coming, right, Hawk?"

"Only if you don't mind a stopover in Navarre afterwards."

"Of course," she replied blithely, having already figured that into her plans. It was highly unlikely that she was going to be content with sitting around in the Altenan Palace all day after all, especially now that she had a long list of romantic destinations from their travels and a lover to visit them with. "Though I draw the line at visiting Wendel. Let the High Priest learn about the changes in Mana on his own."

"You just don't want to run into Carlie," Hawk pointed out.

"And you DO?"

"Point taken."

"Oh, who gets to keep Flammie's drum?" the Princess wondered, since it seemed fairly obvious that they were going to split ways, then another thought occurred to her. "Wasn't she supposed to go into service for those merchant cats?"

"I gave them a useless fake, remember? But I bet I could replicate the real one," the Navarrian reminded her. "We ought to be able to get the materials from Byzel. You can make imitations of ANYTHING there."

"I'd appreciate it," Duran said. "I have to say, I'm not so fond of boats or canons these days."

Especially considering the last boat they'd taken had been haunted and left them stranded on a volcanic island, Angela could appreciate the sentiment. As cowardly as their white dragon was, Flammie was awfully convenient. Just because the world was no longer in immediate peril didn't mean that she liked the idea of returning to pedestrian methods of transportation. "Well, I suppose we'd better get going, huh?" the Princess asked, looking around the devastated patch of earth they'd cleared in the heart of the Mana Holyland. Even if a sort of peaceful tranquillity had returned to the place, it had a sort of morbid feeling about it. She couldn't stop staring at the charred patch of ground that could have been her grave mere hours before.

They called the white dragon, who wheeled down from the sky with a joyous bray almost immediately. This time, Hawk insisted that she ride up front, and she did nothing to dissuade his wandering hands or the warm breath against her neck as they settled themselves on the dragon. About the only thing stopping her from making out with the Navarrian then and there was the presence of Duran, who had to be feeling awkward enough already, though the good-natured Knight was polite enough not to show it - or perhaps more likely he had just become so used to her flirtatious ways that it resembled ordinary behaviour to him.

Flammie took them on a leisurely trip through the sky for once, rather than flying with the sort of urgency that made them feel that their arms would tear from their sockets as they held on for dear life. They dropped Duran off at Forcena and hour or so later as the sun was setting - how long had it been since they entered Dragon's Hole? - promising to meet up in a couple of days to deliver a replica of Flammie's drum to him. Really, it didn't feel like the proper, formal sort of goodbye they should have had with the Paladin, who had been their companion for months through countless life-and-death battles. On the other hand, she knew that it was likely that they'd probably continue to see him fairly frequently, at least for a while, until things settled back down into a routine again and they all became too occupied with their day-to-day lives to bother catching up.

Things would change. They probably wouldn't travel together again, not the way they had before. Angela felt suddenly nostalgic as Hawk clapped the Paladin on the back, and she gave the knight a chaste kiss on the cheek as they bade their temporary goodbyes. Even if she hadn't held romantic feelings for him for a long time, Duran had become a good friend. It was going to be a little odd without him asking obvious questions and optimistically leading them through peril for a while.

Not that she really wanted to keep hanging around him forever. She was, of course, much more interested in finally getting some genuine alone time with Hawk, but it was a weird sensation none-the-less.

They waved goodbye and clambered back onto Flammie, heading to Byzel. The memory of her few stolen kisses with Hawk burned on her lips now, as she eagerly anticipated finally getting to an inn where they could get a lot more intimate and finally resolve some of that long-unresolved tension.

Though she was sort of tired. Now that the adrenaline rush had worn off, she admitted that it was probably worth sleeping first. She'd enjoy getting frisky with the thief a hell of a lot more if she wasn't falling asleep in the middle of it. Though he was staying in her bed. She didn't want him to even START to think about sneaking off. Not that she thought he would, now that he'd confessed and all... but you could never predict thieves. They'd steal your heart then disappear into thin air if it suited them.

Even though they were flying at ridiculously high speeds and altitudes on the back of white dragon, Angela felt her eyes droop shut, and soon she slipped off to sleep with her head lolling on Hawk's shoulder and arms clutched around his waist. She couldn't remember arriving, but she did recall coming close enough to waking at some point to realise that she was being carried somewhere. In her half-lucid state, she recognised the Rogue's smooth voice murmuring something to someone, likely an innkeeper, and then the next thing she knew it was mid-morning - or possibly even midday - and her arm was draped over a warm body.

Her sleep-fogged brain took a moment to process it. It felt like going back in time - it seemed like a lifetime ago now that she had been going to bars in Altena, getting drunk and seeking companionship with whichever male looked best at the time. She was relatively certain, however, that most Altenan men didn't wear their hair in long, tightly wrapped ponytails or have such tanned skin. Then her memory started catching up, and for a brief second she had the urge to throw the perverted thief pressed against her side from the bed and bury him under an Ice Smash. Fortunately, she managed to repress the reflex long enough to remember that she WANTED Hawk to be perverted, just so long as it was only with her.

She sat there quietly for a few minutes, enjoying the rare opportunity to watch the object of affections in unguarded sleep. Why the hell had she ever thought she'd be able to love Duran? The sweet knight, bless his heart, was far too naive for somebody so handsome. In retrospect, if she had ever managed to bed him, it probably would have just been another one-night stand that he'd never understand. With Hawk, on the other hand... she didn't think she'd ever get tired of him. That was the only way she could really describe it to herself. Talking about true love and commitment and all that was terribly romantic when you were on your deathbed, but just sounded overtly mushy and sentimental when uttered in regular daylight hours. Well, Hawk did it easily enough, but sarcasm and theatrical over-acting didn't count.

She supposed that now the threat to the world was over, it was about time she started sorting through that giant list of things she'd been meaning to think about for a long time, but kept shoving to the back of her mind because it was damn inconvenient to be pondering your love life or character changes when fighting dragons or zombies. Not right, then, though, she thought with a yawn. She could put off the deep thinking for a little while longer.

Eventually, though, hunger was enough to drive her out of bed, and with some prodding a mumbling and incoherent Hawk tumbled after her. She gave him a light kick as she headed for the bathroom. "I never thought I'd ever find anybody who likes sleeping late more than me."

"At least we don't have Duran and the Fairy dragging us out of bed at the crack of dawn," came the yawning reply. "That was TORTURE. Who can be so cheerful first thing in the morning?"

Angela enjoyed a long shower, properly washing her hair and grooming herself to look her best, and it was worth it when Hawk's eyes followed her unashamedly when she finally emerged. The inn keep, on the other hand, looked scared stiff of them now that they'd both been fully rested and washed. It took her a minute to realise that with her and Hawk's battle garb, they looked every bit the warriors they'd come to be. She briefly considered discarding the Ancient Robe at least, just to stop the staring and not particularly wanting to so obviously look like a Magus when walking around town, but reconsidered when Hawk suggested a visit to the Black Market later. Spooking the townsfolk was sort of fun, anyway. Maybe she could even sell her remaining two unused curative elixirs there, seeing as they weren't likely to find a use for them again any time soon. When she absently checked for them, though, she couldn't find them. Lips quirking into a wry smile, she left it be and sat down with her companion for lunch.

Lunch was held at a leisurely place, and it was mid-afternoon before they left the comfort of the inn. Hawk disappeared from her side for a few minutes, but she was feeling too content at that point in time to worry, and did nothing more than raise an eyebrow when he returned holding several purses that definitely didn't belong to him.

"Old habits die hard, huh?" she asked, stretching her arms.

He shrugged, rifling through them for money before throwing the rest of it away. "Taking a woman on a date is expensive, you know. Don't I owe you ice-cream?"

She rolled her eyes, but followed the thief on what had to be the most innocent date she'd been on yet. The atmosphere in Byzel seemed brighter than she last remembered it, and the entire setting seemed too tranquil, too peaceful to be real. It was impossible to believe that only the day before the world had come so incredibly close to ending, that she'd been fighting Koren, and later taking a breath that she'd been certain was her last.

It was a little freaky, so she was somewhat relieved when the sun set and they descended back into the murky depths of the Black Market. Seedy and dangerous was more familiar than bright and happy these days.

Hawk led her over to a vendor who had started waving enthusiastically as soon as they entered the large, windowless warehouse that housed the illegal marketplace. "Ah, Hawk, good timing, I just finish, yes! Though your drum will not be ready until tomorrow." A fishy-looking old man - more that he resembled a fish rather than looked suspicious, that was - grasped the Rogue's sleeve and tugged him around to the side of his counter. Out of the corner of her eyes, the Princess spied two familiar-looking showgirls heading their way, but clasping Hawk's hand and sending them a cold glare was enough to have them suddenly minding their own business. Yes, looking the part of a Magus had many perks indeed.

Then Hawk was handing her a cane, which she accepted with a perplexed expression on her face. It looked familiar somehow... "What's this?"

"Your Ancient Cane," he replied patiently.

She stared at him dumbly. "I do believe that shattered into many useless splinters quite some time ago." For one heart-warming second she thought he might have actually gone and glued all of the individual shards back together in a thoughtful display of love and caring. A moment later that crazy thought was dismissed as ridiculous, since this was _Hawk_ she was talking about, and the thief would never do anything so labour-intensive.

A closer inspection, of course, revealed the true nature of the item. "You actually made an imitation?!" She didn't know whether to be grateful, affronted, or impressed. She'd completely forgotten about how she'd utterly destroyed that priceless family treasure her mother had leant her from the royal vaults, and no doubt had she returned to Altena without it she would have stood a very good chance at being exiled all over again.

"Well, of course I didn't make it, but there are people here who specialise in this sort of thing. Some of the copies they make are just as good as the originals - that's why I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get a drum that's at least close enough to Flammie's that she'll respond to it here."

The Princess turned the weapon over in her hands slowly, inspecting it. It would fool almost anyone who wasn't familiar with the original weapon itself - the grain of the wood looked almost identical, even though it was much lighter and probably not as sturdy. The carving was spot-on as well, save for a few parts where the design was a little off, but given that it had probably been drawn from memory, the amount of detail that had been so closely mimicked was remarkable. There were no magical properties in it, either, but Angela felt confident that she could infuse a little of her own power into it and pass the rest off as a result in the change in Mana. They'd even gone so far as weather it a little, sanding scuffs and slight dents from use into it.

"I guess it'll do," she replied airily. Hawk was already handing over stolen money to the greedy vendor. She frowned as they started walking away. "Wasn't it expensive, though? Even for an imitation, it's using pretty good materials." Angela liked having gifts lavished upon her as much as the next girl, but a bigger part of her had become used to having to skip out on bills at inns because of their perpetual money problem. Heck, if it hadn't been for the Navarrian's thieving skills, they probably would have starved to death before they even found all of the Elementals, much less fought eight God-Beasts.

"Yeah, but I got a discount when I mentioned that you were the future ruler of Altena and could destroy the entire building with one spell. They like to keep important people like you on their side."

Angela rolled her eyes as they left the warehouse, emerging onto the deserted moonlit streets of Byzel. "Won't that change when I show absolutely no interest in doing the Black Market any favours? Performing for one night as a showgirl there was enough to put me off the place forever, you know!"

"But you were so very beautiful," Hawk purred, taking her hand. "And besides, think of it like this: we'll be able to get all sorts of good deals on the Black Market now. I can say, 'Hey, I happen to PERSONALLY know the Mana Goddess, you know?' I'd like to see anyone ELSE beat that sort of name-dropping."

"You know, seeing as we know PERSONALLY know the Mana Goddess, wouldn't it make more sense for you to give up your life of crime? After all, you know for a FACT that she doesn't approve of it."

Hawk grinned. "Does that mean you're going to start dressing modestly and only using your magic for the greater good?"

"But I'm allowed to fireball you. You're an evil thief," she responded innocently.

"But I don't steal from people I know," he pointed out.

"Yes you do! You steal from me and Duran all the time! You stole my last elixirs from me this morning!"

The Navarrian pouted. "I just wanted to get your attention."

"You mean you've been stealing from me all this time... to GET MY ATTENTION? How old are you, five?" Come to think of it, that time she'd been searching Hawk's pockets while he was unconscious she'd come across a few pieces of jewellery that she hadn't seen since before Astoria. Typically, wouldn't he have sold them off for money at the first available opportunity? Why had he kept them? Dear Goddess, had the thief liked her even back then? She'd always sort of assumed that the desert rat had been in a similar situation to her to begin with - just flirting for the sake of banter, and only later coming into his own feelings. But if he'd really held a candle for her since they'd first met... the poor guy had put up with her chasing Duran back when she'd had eyes for nobody else; no wonder he'd tried to piss her off at every turn. During that brief period when the thief had been trying his hardest to ignore her, she'd been happy when he talked to her at all, even if it was just about an impending battle.

Angela suddenly laughed at her personal revelation. Hawk blinked, then slouched. "It's not that funny."

Whirling on one foot, the Magus turned to the Rogue and pulled him close, pressing their lips together. After a brief second, she felt the thief respond to the kiss, and time seemed to slow as the rest of the universe slipped away.

It could have been an eternity later, but more likely it was just a couple of minutes before they broke apart, lips moist and swollen. Hawk grinned, amber eyes almost glowing in the moonlight.

"Why, Angie, are you trying to turn me into a Prince?" he asked in mock delight.

The Magus threaded her fingers through his, and started leading the way back to the inn. "It'd take more than a kiss to do that," she retorted.

* * *

The end. Thank you for reading. 


End file.
